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THE  NEW  WEST 


AS  RELATED  TO  THE  CHRISTIAN  COLLEGE. 


E.  P.  tj:nney. 


Third  Edition,  Illustrated. 


CAMBRIDGE: 

5prtntct!  nt  tfjc  Hibcrsitic  ^xc^^ 

1S78. 


NOTE. 

A  (jentleman  frum  an  inland  town  in  Mus^sachusetls,  —  ivho  has  no  pecu- 
niary interest  in  the  Fur  West,  save  that  he  has  made  most  generous  gifts  to 
promote  Christian  education  in  that  region,  —  has  so  far  borne  the  expense  of 
this  publication  in  its  different  editions,  os  to  provide  for  the  free  distribution 
of  a  limited  number  of  copies,  to  persons  icho  are  wont  to  devise  liberal  things 
in  establishing  the  foundations  of  intelligence  and  morality  in  new  countries. 

The  author  takes  this  occasion  to  express  his  thanks  to  the  press  for  the  icarm 
greeting  given  this  monograph.  To  meet  the  demand  of  those  who  desire  infor- 
mation concerning  the  climate,  resources,  and  scenery  of  the  Neic  West,  a  few 
copies  have  been  placed  upon  sale  at  the  bookstores,  — copies  in  cloth,  at  ffty 
cents ;  in  jiaper,  ticenty-fice. 

Congregational  House,  Boston. 

April  19,  1878. 


^*w.*4Aj** 


THE   NEW  WEST. 


Between  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi  —  the  Old  West 
—  and  the  Pacific  slope  lies  the  New  West,  a  mountain 
plateau  from  three  to  six  thousand  feet  high,  upon  which 
rise  the  Rocky  Mountains.  Take  Wyoming,  Colorado, 
New  Mexico,  Arizona,  Utah,  Nevada,  Idaho,  and  Mon- 
tana ;  then  add  a  minute  fragment  of  fifty  thousand 
square  miles  from  western  Dakota,  comprising  the 
Black  Hills  region,  and  you  have  the  New  W^est, — 
one  third  part  of  the  United  States,  —  as  large  as  all 
that  portion  of  our  country  east  of  the  Mississippi. 
Colorado  is  equal  in  size  to  Switzerland,  New  England, 
New  Jersey,  Delaware,  and  Maryland.  Maps  of  Penn- 
sylvania and  New  York  would  need  to  add  Maryland 
and  Rhode  Island  to  cover  Colorado.  Ohio  could  lie 
down  twice  within  the    boundaries  of  the  Centennial 


4  THE  l^EW  WEST. 

State,  and  then  leave  room  enouo-h  for  West  Viru-inia 
and  Connecticut.  Kansas  and  Iowa  together  are  not 
its  match  in  square  miles.  Colorado  has  almost  as 
many  acres  as  Old  England  and  New.  Men  team 
goods  from  Colorado  Springs  through  Ute  Pass,  follow- 
in  o-  a  lono;er  road  than  that  from  Boston  to  Philadel- 
phia,  and  yet  they  do  not  go  out  of  their  own  State. 

The  topography  of  the  New  West  may  be  in  general 
described  thus  :  — 

The  valley  of  the  Mississippi  extends  four  hundred 
and  fifty  miles  west  of  the  river  ;  we  then  cross  the 
elevated  bufialo  plains,  seven  hundred  miles  long  and 
three  hundred  miles  in  width ;  then  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains, —  in  parallel  ranges  from  twelve  thousand  to  four- 
teen thousand  feet  high,  inclosing  parks  at  an  eleva- 
tion of  eight  or  nine  thousand  feet,  —  three  hundred 
and  fifty  miles  Avide  ;  then  a  width  of  seven  hundred 
miles  to  the  Sierra  Nevada.  The  Great  American  Des- 
ert is  upon  the  western  verge  of  the  last  described  belt. 
It  is  from  seventy-five  to  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles 
wide.  No  east  and  west  line  can  cross  arable  land  all 
the  way  from  the  Rocky  Mountains  to  the  Sierra.^ 

Men  who  forecast  the  future  of  America  will  be  in- 
terested in  a  statement  of  those  elements  of  wealth, 
which  indicate  the  capacity  of  this  mountain  plateau  to 
sustain  population. 

Aside  from  Idaho,  no  small  portion  of  which  is,  like 
Oregon,  admirably  adapted  to  sustain  a  large  agricul- 
tural population,  the  New  West  resembles  California  in 
its  general  chiiracteristics. 

One  of  the  prime  industries,  when  it  is  fully  devel- 
oped, will  be  grazing.  In  the  northern  portion  of  this 
region  it  is  necessary  to  make  some  provision  for  win- 
ter,—  cvcu  so  fir  soiitli  as  Colorado  Springs;  but  beef- 

^    V'liU:  A\'liroler's  Preliniindrij  Rrpmi  on  Neradii,  etc. 


THE  NEW   WEST.  5 

cattle  and  sheep  graze  all  the  year  round  without  cut 
feed  or  shelter  in  southern  Colorado,  New  Mexico,  and 
Arizona.  The  pasture  grounds  of  Colorado  and  New 
Mexico  comprise  seventy  million  acres. 

The  grama  grass  is  so  nutritious  that  stock  and  dairy 
men  who  have  had  many  years  experience  in  the  val- 
ley of  the  Mississippi  and  also  on  the  great  plains,  are 
now  moviuii'  to  the  New  West.  Not  far  fi'oiu  ten  mil- 
lion  dollars  are  now  invested  in  stock  in  Colorado,  a 
part  being  European  capital.  The  profit  is  estimated 
at  about  fifty  per  cent,  where  the  business  is  under- 
stood. It  is  an  interest  of  more  promise  than  all  the 
gold  mines  in  the  country.  \\\  the  future,  when  the 
elopes  of  both  oceans  are,  crowded,  and  the  valley  of 
the  Mississippi  is  a  garden,  the  great  herding  ground 
of  the  continent  will  be  on  the  plains  of  our  New  West. 
The  present  value  of  the  hay  crop  and  pasturage  of 
the  United  States  —  including  dairy  products,  wool, 
and  the  increase  of  live  stock,  —  is  nine  hundred  and 
seventy-three  million  dollars,  wdiich  exceeds  in  value 
all  the  cotton,  corn,  wheat,  and  other  farm  products  of 
the  country.^  As  an  element  of  national  wealth,  these 
vast  pastures,  which  have  fed  the  buffaloes  for  ages,  are 
likely  to  contribute  quite  as  much  to  the  country  as 
an}^  other  equal  area  not  occupied  by  a  manufacturing, 
mining,  or  commercial  population.  Those  wdio  know 
the  manner  of  life  most  frequently  led  by  herdsmen 
will  fear  for  the  future,  unless  the  youth  wdio  are  to 
entraii'e  in  this  business  are  trained  in  Christian  schools. 
An  enlightened  patriotism  will  plant  the  Christian  col- 
leo-e  in  the  New  West,  and,  throunh  its  manifold  intlu- 
'  ences.  elevate  all  the  people. 

Agricultural  operations  in   this  region  promise  to  be 
very  profitable.     Portions  of  Colorado  and  New  Mexico, 

^  Stewart's  Irrujalion,  page  18. 


6  THE  NEW  WEST. 

to  the  amount  of  four  million  acres,  are  watered  by 
rains,  and  the  same  is  true  of  no  small  areas,  here  and 
there,  in  the  mountains  or  near  them,  throughout  the 
New  West.  But,  in  the  main,  irrigation  is  necessary, 
and  the  farms  are  planted  on  the  borders  of  mountain 
streams  fed  by  melting  snow.  The  absence  of  a  green- 
sward upon  the  general  face  of  the  country  is  at  once 
missed  by  the  eastern  eye,  but  a  practical  farmer  soon 
learns  that  there  is  everyway  an  advantage  if  he  can 
water  his  crops  when  he  chooses.  The  crops  are  not 
injured  by  rain  or  its  withholding.  Drought  spoils  one 
fourth  of  the  crops  of  the  world.  Farming  carried  on 
by  irrigation  is  much  more  profitable  than  in  the  ordi- 
nary process,  and  the  land  is  kept  in  good  heart  by  it 
through  centuries.-^  Chemical  analysis  of  the  soil  of 
the  New  West  shows  that  it  is  of  a  remarkably  good 

^  See  Stewart's  valuable  work  on  irrigation,  which  is  a  standard  author- 
ity. A  foot  of  water  is  needed  over  the  whole  soil  while  the  crops  are 
growing.  Three  fourths  of  our  rain-fall  runs  off  or  comes  at  the  wrong 
time  of  year  for  crops.  The  English  derive  more  advantage  from  less 
rain-fall  than  we  have,  because  it  comes  a  little  at  a  time  during  the  season 
when  it  is  most  needed.  American  farmers,  east  and  west,  raise  less  per 
acre  than  they  would  by  partial  irrigation.  The  average  crop  all  over  the 
country  niiglit  be  largely  increased  by  the  systematic  distribution  of  water 
from  streams.  Market  gardening  often  suffers  for  want  of  water  at  a 
critical  time.     "  Growing  plants  contain  from  seventy  to   ninety-five  per 

cent,  of  water The  solid  portion  of  the  plant  consists  of  matters 

which  enter  into  it  only  while  in  solution  in  water No  water,  whether 

it  be  in  the  state  of  liquid  or  vapor,  can  enter  into  any  other  part  of  a  plant 

than  its  roots The  summer  rain-fall  in  our  climate  is  i-ircly,  if  ever, 

adequate  to  the  requii-ements  of  what  would  be  a  maximum  crop,  consistent 
with  the  probabilities  of  the  soil."  [Stewart,  page  9.]  Water,  when  used 
in  irrigation,  "  brings  within  reach  of  the  plants  a  largely  increased  amount 
of  nutriment.  Water  is  the  universal  solvent.  No  water  in  its  natural  con- 
dition is  pure.  The  water  of  springs  and  streams  holds  in  solution  or 
suspension  a  quantity  of  mineral  and  gaseous  matters,  that  possess  high 
fertilizing  value."  [Page  18.]  Irrigation  has  been  used  on  the  same  soil 
two  hundred  years  in  New  Mexico,  without  other  fertilizing  properties 
than  that  jjrought  by  the  water. 

The  British  government  has  recently  expended  seventy  million  dollars  in 
irrisatinjr  works  ui  India. 


THE  .\FAV    WEST.  7 

quality,  needing  only  the  touch  of  water  to  produce 
the  best  cro])s  in  the  country,  notably  ot"  wheat.  The 
wheat  crop  of  the  United  States  averages  twelve  bush- 
els to  the  acre,  California  twenty,  Colorado  twenty- 
eight.  It  will,  on  this  account,  support  a  large  popu- 
lation in  proportion  to  the  surface  cultivated.  In 
estimating  the  agricultural  resources  of  this  region,  the 
area  of  farming  land  may  be,  in  respect  to  ability  to 
support  population,  doubled  or  nearly  so  on  account  of 
the  advantages  of  a  good  soil  under  irrigation.  It  will 
also  support  a  larger  population  than  the  same  land 
east,  since  it  can  be  used  mainly  to  raise  vegetable  food 
for  man.  In  the  eastern  States  a  farmer  must  set  apart 
acres  to  raise  hay  and  cattle  to  keep  the  rest  of  his 
form  in  good  condition  ;  and  in  the  valley  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi hay  must  be  raised  to  keep  cattle  through  the 
winter ;  in  general,  neither  of  these  necessities  exists 
in  the  New  AVest.  The  whole  area  of  farm  lands  can 
be  used  for  man's  garden  or  granary.  This  considera- 
tion alone  would  be  equal  to  adding,  perhaps,  one  third 
to  the  amount  of  arable  land  in  the  New  West.  While, 
therefore,  that  which  can  be  irrigated  is  little  compared 
with  the  whole  surface,  it  is  practically  enough  to  sup- 
port a  vast  population.  It  is  estimated  that  Colorado 
and  New  Mexico  have  agricultural  resources  to  main- 
tain ten  million  inha1)itants.  Professor  Hayden's  ^'At- 
las of  Colorado,"  soon  to  be  issued,  will  show  a  much 
greater  area  of  ftirm  land  than  has  been  supposed  to 
exist.  Western  and  northwestern  mountain  valleys  will 
prove  ver}^  attractive. 

Farming  in  Colorado  is  at  this  time  a  decided  success. 
There  will  be  always  a  good  market  for  garden  and 
field  produce  among  the  mining  and  grazing  people, 
on  account  of  the  limited  area  suitable  for  cultivation 
and   the  distance  from   competition.      The  farm   lauds 


8  THE  NEW   WEST. 

will,  therefore,  have  a  comparatively  dense  population 
at  some  future  time.  The  rich  Arkansas  valley  and 
the  banks  of  rivers  fed  by  the  mountains,  now  com- 
paratively desolate,  will  resound  with  the  voices  of  chil- 
dren ;  and  happy  homes  will  be  scattered  along  the 
borders  of  all  streams.  And  the  Gospel  message  will 
need  to  be  borne  to  every  door  by  a  ministry  trained 
upon  neighboring  soil  and  adapted  to  the  field.  The 
planting  of  Christian  teachers  in  every  school  district 
can  be  secured  only  b}^  establishing  first  the  Christian 
college  ;  from  which  intellectual  and  spiritual  quicken- 
ing w^ill  flow  like  the  fertilizing  streams  from  the  Sierra 
Mad  re. 

This  reo'ion  has  a  considerable  quantitv  of  timber  in 
the  mountains,  enough  for  the  use  of  the  countr3^. 
The  river  bottoms  are  lined  with  scrub-oak,  box-elder, 
and  Cottonwood.  There  are  five  million  acres  of  tim- 
ber land  in  New  Mexico,  nearly  one  fifth  of  the  terri- 
tory. There  is,  however,  no  such  varietv  of  crrowth  as 
one  sees  in  the  East. 

Inexhaustible  store  of  excellent  iron  ore  is  found  in 
southern  Colorado  and  northern  New  Mexico.  Near 
the  iron,  is  the  best  coal  west  of  Pennsylvania.  For 
coking,  it  is  pronounced  by  experts  to  be  equal  to  the 
Connellsville  coal.  Furnaces  and  rolling  mills  will 
abound  in  this  region  in  the  future,  they  are  already 
established  at  Pueblo.  That  this  industry  will  be  de- 
veloped rapidly,  and  that  to  a  great  extent,  is  certain, 
since  there  is  no  coal  for  four  hundred  miles  east,  no 
good  coal  in  Mexico,  Arizona,  Nevada,  or  California. 
The  coal  is  now  sent  to  Nevada  for  smeltinu:.  \'(  the 
higher  education  is  to  find  a  foothold  in  tlie  New 
West,  Colorado  College  is  well  located,  in  proximity  to 
this  coal  and  iron  region. 

It  is  hardly  needful   to  s})eak  of  llic  golil  and  silver 


THE  NEW  WEST.  9 

mines,  avIiosc  fame  lias  gone  out  to  all  the  world.  One 
hundred  millions  of  gold  have  been  sent  from  Montana 
alone.  The  annual  yield  of  Colorado  is  eight  millions, 
which  is  more  than  California  produced  in  1870.  Gil- 
pin County  has  averaged  two  millions  a  year  for  eight- 
een years.  The  passion  I'or  mining  is  the  instrument 
of  Providence  in  transferring  populations  to  new  seats 
of  empire.  The  history  of  California  and  Australia  is 
now  repeating  itself  in  Colorado,  Wyoming,  Montana, 
Nevada,  Utah,  Arizona,  and  New  Mexico,  —  the  rich- 
est region  in  the  world. 

The  climate  will,  however,  do  more  than  all  other 
agencies  towards  settling  the  New  West.  "  The  em- 
pire  of  climate,"  says  Montesquieu,  "is  the  most  pow- 
erful of  all  empires."  West  of  the  valley  of  the  Miss- 
issippi the  land  rises,  sloping  like  a  wide  roof  toward 
the  Rock}-  ridgepole  of  the  continent ;  so  that  this  part 
■of  the  country  is  too  high  and  dry  for  malarial  diseases, 
asthma,  bronchitis,  or  consumption.  Consumption  may 
be  prevented  by  moving  to  Colorado ;  those  wdio  go 
with  quick  consumption  fixed  upon  them  find  that  the 
disease  is  accelerated  by  the  rarity  of  the  atmosphere ; 
but  chronic  consumption  is  cured  by  the  climate.  Col- 
orado soil  and  air  are  so  dry  that  an  axe  left  out  of 
doors  will  not  rust,  if  it  be  covered  from  snow  and  rain. 
Save  in  the  mountains  and  in  their  near  neighbor- 
hood,  there  is  very  little  snow  and  a  general  absence 
of  rain.  Warm  currents  from  the  South  Pacific  touch 
the  mountains,  modifying  the  air.  I  have  seen  men 
plowing  in  February  eight  thousand  feet  above  the 
sea  near  Central.  In  the  vicinity  of  Colorado  Springs 
sheep  graze  all  winter,  six  thousand  feet  above  the  sea. 
in  the  latitude  of  Washington.  Parties  have  indulged 
in  picnics  out  of  doors  wpon  a  given  day  each  week  for 
ten  weeks  of  December,  January,  and  February.  A 
weather  record  of  two  years  at  Colorado  Springs  gives, 


10  THE  IsEW   WEST. 

—  in  one  year  three  hundred  and  twenty-two  fair  and 
clear  days,  and  forty-four  cloudy ;  the  year  following, 
three  hundred  and  twelve  foir  and  clear,  and  fifty-three 
cloudy.  Colorado  Colleo-e  is  now  one  of  the  Q:overn- 
nient  stations  for  meteorolog-ical  observations.  The 
dail}-  record  by  Professor  Loud  indicates  conditions  of 
climate,  which  will  attract  invalids  to  this  spot. 

It  is  not,  perhaps,  needful  to  say  that  persons  in  deli- 
cate health,  who  are  subject  to  an  embargo  of  mud 
every  winter  in  the  States  in  the  valley  of  the  Missis- 
sippi, will  find  in  Colorado  the  best  natural  roads  in  the 
world,  which  offer  good  driving  or  walking,  so  that 
they  can  take  advantage  of  the  almost  unceasing  sun- 
shine. The  climate  is  by  no  means  perfect,  it  being 
subject  to  the  changes  incident  to  a  mountain  altitude ; 
but,  with  all  its  ''  exceptional  "  freaks,  it  is  so  much 
superior  to  the  climate  of  the  East  or  that  of  the  Old 
West,  that  persons  in  ill  health  can  live  out  of  doors  to 
an  extent  altoa'ether  unknown  in  reoions  where  cloud, 
snow,  rain,  wind,  sharp  and  severe  changes  of  weather, 
kill  tens  of  thousands  of  semi-invalids  every  year.  The 
lives  of  multitudes  might  be  easil}^  lengthened  by  mov- 
ino-  into  the  New  West. 

One  third  of  the  popuhition  of  Colorado  are  recon- 
structed invaUds.  Asthmatic  conventions  meet  in  this 
favored  country  to  invite  all  America  to  breathe  the 
healing  atmosphere.  Tough,  rugged  people — who 
coughed  ten  years  in  the  East  —  are  now  calling  on  all 
dwellers  in  fog  banks  and  low  lands  to  move  to  this 
mountain  plateau.  The  wdiole  New  West  is  a  sanita- 
rium ;  the  northern  part  uiild  in  winter,  and  the  south- 
ern part  cool  in  summer.  Montana  and  Wyoming  are 
milder  than  regions  in  the  same  latitude  in  the  lower 
altitude  of  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi,  or  on  the 
Atlantic  slope.  Tliat  jiortion  of  Colorado  south  of 
the  Divide  is  more  favorable  for  winter  residence  than 


THE  NEW    WEST.  13 

north  of  it.  The  great  storm  in  March  of  this  year  did 
not  block  the  Atchison,  Topeka.  and  Santa  Fc  Railway, 
while  the  Kansas  Pacific  and  Union  Pacific  were  hnried. 
Colorado  Springs  had  little  snow,  although  the  regions 
east  and  north  were  heavily  drifted.  The  winter  pre- 
cedinu'  favored  slei<''h-ridin!i-  in  Denver,  but  there  was 
no  snow  to  speak  of  in  Colorado  Springs.  There 
is  always  less  snow  fall  in  the  southern  portion  of  the 
State,  and  the  changes  of  weather  are  less  severe. 
New  Mexico  will  be  still  better,  when  the  country  is 
better  able  to  receive  invalids.  Families  with  the 
seeds  of  early  death  in  them  will  do  well  to  %  for 
refuire  to  these  central  mountain  reo[:ions  of  America. 
The  invalids  of  the  United  States  comprise  not  a  small 
part  of  the  population ;  and  many  of  those  who  have 
property  will,  as  they  become  acquainted  with  the 
facts,  move  into  one  of  the  beautiful  towns  at  the  east- 
ern base  of  the  Rocky  Mountains. 

The  scenery  is  unique.  The  length  of  the  main 
range  of  mountains  and  the  spurs  of  the  main  range 
within  the  limits  of  Colorado  is  twelve  hundred  miles, 
averaging  twelve  thousand  feet  high ;  nearly  a  score  of 
peaks  rise  to  a  height  of  more  than  fourteen  thousand 
feet.  The  White  Hills  of  New^  England,  set  down  in 
one  of  the  parks,  would  make  no  great  addition  to  the 
scenery.  Switzerland,  so  far  as  size  is  concerned,  could 
be  placed  in  a  pocket  of  Colorado. 

Under  the  shadows  of  the  Sierra  Madre  are  already 
growing  up  some  of  the  most  home  like  and  attractive 
towns  in  America,  well  watered  and  shaded,  with 
comely  houses  stand iug  amid  grass  plots  and  flower 
gardens.  Colorado  Springs  has  a  population  of  thirty- 
five  hundred  people,  upon  a  spot  where  antelopes  were 
feeding  six  j^ears  ago,  and  where  the  Indians  were  tak- 
mg  scalps  only  a  little  before  that.  This  town  has 
twenty-one  miles  of  trees.  iq:)on  streets  a  hundred  feet 


14  THE  NEW   ]VEST. 

wide,  or  avenues  of  one  hundred  and  forty.  Four  rows 
of  trees  upon  one  street  extend  two  miles.  A  school 
building  costing  twenty  thousand  dollars,  and  comfort- 
able houses  of  worship,  indicate  the  character  of  the 
people.  This  colony  and  the  one  at  Greeley,  are  the 
only  ones  in  the  State  where  liquor  selling  is  forbidden 
in  every  deed  of  land,  and  in  the  policy  of  the  local 
government.  Pike's  Peak  rises  not  far  off,  and  smaller 
mountains  plant  their  feet  within  a  mile  or  two  of  the 
town.  The  unsurpassed  wonders  of  Glen  Eyrie,  Queen's 
Canon,  tlie  Garden  of  the  Gods,  Manitou  Mineral 
Springs,  Ute  Pass,  and  Cheyenne  ^  Cailon  —  all  within 
five  miles  of  the  town  —  attract  tourists  from  all  the 
world.  Any  one  of  these  famous  resorts  would  make 
the  fortune  of  a  watering  place  in  the  east.  Professor 
Hayden  says  that  he  never  saw  so  wonderful  a  com- 
bination of  grand  scenery  in  the  neighborhood  of  any 
other  medical  springs.^  The  rocky  spires  and  changing 
shadows  of  Cheyenne  Mountain,  seen  four  miles  to 
the  southwest  of  the  town,  give  constant  delight  to 
every  eye.  It  is  not  far  to  walk  or  ride  into  quiet 
glens,  with  flowing  fountains,  rocky  streams,  abundant 
foliage,  and  flowers,  with  mountain  walls  and  massive 
peaks  rising  on  every  side. 

May  we  not  anticipate  an  honorable  future  for  a  lit- 
erary institution,  established  as  a  fountain  of  Christian 
influence  and  intellectual  power,  in  this  enchanting 
spot?  "Most  earnestly  I  believe,"  says  a  writer  whoso 
eyes  are  never  weary  in  beholding  the  forms  of  these 
mountains,  and  whose  fame  is  known  to  all  literature, 
"  that  there  is  to  be  ])()ru  of  these  plains  and  moun- 
tains, all  along  the  great  central  plateaus  of  our  con- 

^  Tlic  orlliojfriipliy  of  lliis  won!,  iviidcivd  so  dilTereiitly  by  various  Hcieii- 
tific  cxi)lor«irs,  is  now  pi-actieally  settlcil  liy  llic  iisajie  ot"  <a  wi-itcr  whose 
books  liavi'  flic  aiiilioiity  of  (•lassies  wIutcmt  liic  English  tongiK;  is  spoken. 

-   I'lvliuilnnrij   I'^'iflil  J\flj)oii,   )i.  4."). 


THE  NEW  WEST.  15 

tinent,  the  very  l)est  life,  physical   and   mental,  of  th( 
coming  centuries." 

The  population  of  the  New  West  is,  probably,  at  this 
time,  not  far  from  seven  hundred  thousand.  — 

"  The  first  low  wash  of  waves,  where  soon 
Shall  roll  the  human  sea." 

In  the  ten  years  before  the  last  census  the  seven 
States  east  of  this  region,  having  twice  the  area  of  Col- 
01  ado  and  New  Mexico,  increased  their  population  by 
three  millions.  Emigration  will  soon  occupy  by  hun- 
dreds of  thousands,  and  then  by  millions,  the  eastern 
border  of  the  New  West.  The  laws  which  govern  the 
westward  movement  of  population  are  now  well  un- 
derstood. Not  many  years  can  pass  before  the  ter- 
ritories will  become  States.  Whenever  the  Indian 
difficulties,  which  have  stood  in  the  way  of  settlement, 
are  completely  adjusted,  homes  on  this  upland  plateau 
will  be  sought  for  with  the  same  eagerness  that  has 
characterized  our  westward  bound  population  through- 
out American  history.  The  Indian  question  is  so  far 
settled  in  Colorado  that  there  is  now  no  more  danger 
from  red  men  than  there  is  in  Massachusetts  or  New 
York.  Colorado  is,  therefore,  now  increasing  rapidly 
in  population. 

It  is  not,  however,  needful  to  ask  whether  this  third 
part  of  the  United  States  will  be  largely  peopled  within 
ten,  twenty,  fifty,  or  a  hundred  years.  These  periods 
are  brief  in  the  upbuilding  of  States,  as  in  the  life  of 
the  human  race.  We  need  not  ask  whether  or  not  our 
statisticians  are  correct,  who  reckon  on  a  population 
of  a  hundred  millions  in  the  year  1900 ;  or  whether 
there  will  be  two  hundred  millions  at  the  bi-centen- 
nial.  Nor  need  we  examine  the  grounds  of  the  state- 
ment in  the  new  edition  of  the  British  Encyclopaedia, 


16  THE  NEW  WEST. 

that,  if  the  natural  resources  of  America  were  fully 
developed,  it  would  sustain  a  population  of  thirty-six 
hundred  millions,  and  that  it  is  not  improbable  that 
this  number  may  people  America  within  three  or  four 
centuries.  We  need  not  ask  how  soon  Colorado,  New 
Mexico,  Arizona,  Utah,  Nevada,  Idaho,  Montana,  and 
Wyoming  will  number  ten  millions,  twenty,  or  forty, 
since  it  is  only  a  question  of  time  when  these  regions 
will  be  practically  filled  with  a  grazing,  farming,  min- 
ing, manufacturing  population, —  a  New  West,  less 
densely  crowded  than  the  Atlantic  seaboard,  or  the 
Pacific  shore,  or  the  swarming  valley  of  the  Mississippi, 
yet  supporting  no  small  share  of  the  American  people. 
It  is  enough  for  the  purpose  of  this  paper  to  state 
that  there  is  now  a  population  of  nearly  four  hundred 
thousand  in  Colorado,  New  Mexico,  and  Utah ;  and 
that  emigrants  are  now  pouring  into  almost  every  part 
of  the  New  West  every  year ;  and  that  the  most  prac- 
tical business  men  in  the  country,  who  are  conversant 
with  the  movements  of  population  in  America,  are 
taking  most  positive  action  with  reference  to  the  im- 
mediate occupancy  of  Colorado  and  New  Mexico,  and 
the  developments  of  a  growing  trade  in  this  new  west- 
ern country.  It  is  note  wort  liy  that  the  New  York 
newspapers  are  beginning  to  issue  editions  in  Spanish, 
to  introduce  trade  into  New  Mexico  and  further  south. 
In  a  single  year,  in  which  Mexico  imported  twenty-nine 
million  dollars  worth  of  cotton  stuffs,  the  United  States 
furnished  little  more  than  one  tenth.  In  1877  the 
imports  of  the  United  States  from  Mexico  amounted  to 
nearly  fourteen  and  one  half  millions  of  dollars;  in 
that  vear  we  sold  to  Mexico  i!;oods  amounting;  to  only 
four  and  one  half  milhons.  Is  it  not  time  for  the  rail- 
way king  to  unite  the  Republics?  Important  railways 
have   been   begun,   looking  toward  the    southwest,  — 


THE  NEW   WEST. 


IT 


and  one  from  Denver  to  the  city  of  Mexico,  —  upon 
the  ground  that  the  region  to  be  passed  through  is 
already  a  very  remunerative  one  for  traffic,  and  that 
it  will  be  soon  occupied  hy  a  more  dense  and  more 
prosperous  population.  The  result,  in  the  most  not- 
able instance  of  iar-sightedness  and  economical  man- 
agement, is  fully  justifying  the  confidence  of  those  who 
have  engaged  in  the  work. 


GLEN    EYRIE. 


11. 

What  sort  of  an  element  will  the  New  West  make 
in  the  Republic  of  tlie  future  ?  Every  part  of  the  civ- 
ilized world  is  interested  in  answering  this  question. 

We  shall  find  a  very  large  population  of  widely  scat- 
tered and  wandering  herdsmen,  enrolled  in  sparse  vot- 
ing precincts ;  and  of  farmers,  up  and  down  reaches  of 
creeks  and  ditch  ways ;  and  of  miners,  located  here 
and  there  in  mountain  camps ;  and  a  few  large  towns 
and  cities,  not  unlike  the  surrounding  population,  —  a 
people  not  easily  brought  under  Gospel  influences  at 
this  time,  in  which  the  character  of  these  great  States 
of  the  future  is  shaping  itself  Men  apparently 
thoughtless  as  their  cattle,  drift  to  the  border,  wherever 
that  shifting  boundary  may  be,  ''  floating  along  on  the 
edge  of  colonization  like  weeds  borne  forward  by  the 
waves  of  sea."  Many  are  the  herdsmen,  ranchmen, 
miners,  traffickers,  who  move  from  one  lonely  point 
to  another,  everywhere  at  home  under  the  bright  sky, 
and  little  more  mindful  of  spiritual  development  than 
the  Indians  who  roamed  the  plahis,  or  wandered  over 
the  mountains  before  them.  Not  a  few  of  those  who 
have  higher  aims  in  life,  are  restlessly  chasing  the  roll- 
ing dollar,  or  engrossed  in  the  heavy  cares  of  very  un- 
certain business,  and  others  are  coining  money,  —  all 
too  busy  to  heed  the  voice  of  God.  As  the  years  go 
by,  the  population  becomes  more  fixed  ;  but  their  gen- 
oral  characteristics  are  very  different  from  those  which 
obtain  in  older  States.     It   is   not   strange,  therefore, 


THE  NEW  WEST.  19 

that  it  is  difficult  to  find  Christian  teachers  adapted  to 
the  people,  in  sufficient  numbers  to  meet  the  wants  of 
these  growing  communities,  and  that  the  principles 
which  underlie  social  morality,  and  national  success, 
are  neglected  by  no  small  portion  of  the  population. 
It  needs,  however,  no  argument  to  show  that  popular 
neglect  of  the  Biblical  principles  of  love  to  God  and 
love  to  man  is  damaging  to  social  life  and  to  political 
prosperity. 

The  bright-eyed  young  men  now  perched  upon  the 
tops  of  Colorado  mount;uus,  or  nestling  in  deep  basins 
walled  in  by  peaks  of  gold,  are  not  easily  led  into  the 
practice  of  all  the  Christian  virtues.  It  requires  only 
a  small  acquaintance  with  life  in  the  far  Avest,  to  recog- 
nize the  elements  for  upbuilding  a  godless  empire,  if 
the  power  of  the  Gospel  does  not  make  itself  felt 
through  a  Christian  education,  so  broad,  manly,  thor- 
ough, as  to  win  the  respect  of  the  leaders  of  public 
opinion,  and  to  influence  the  masses  through  men 
trained  upon  the  ground  for  this  special  work.  There 
has  been  nowhere  in  the  experience  of  the  nation  any 
such  condition  for  tin*  founding  of  new  States  as  we 
have  seen  in  the  gold  countries.  The  settlement  of 
the  valley  of  the  Mississippi  witnessed  no  such  reckless 
career  as  that  which  has  existed  in  the  very  early 
planting  of  these  new  regions.  If  there  be  added  to 
this  disadvantao-e  an  anti-christian  influence  on  the 
part  of  the  leaders  of  society,  it  will  be  very  difficult 
to  win  the  people  to  a  practical  faith  in  God  and  un- 
selfish love  for  man,  unless  Christianity  has  firm  hold 
of  the  higher  education  of  the  youth  in  these  regions. 
A  Christian  college  ought  to  make  itself  felt  as  a 
moulding  power  in  this  part  of  the  country.  Infidelity 
is  often  based  on  a  misconception  of  Christianity.  It  is 
disarmed  by  any  work  that  manifests  light  and  love  as 


20  THE  NEW  WEST. 

they  appear  in  the  Gospel.  An  intelligent  and  loving 
Christianity  has  nothing  to  fear  ;  but  it  must  be  intel- 
ligent. If  ignorant  persons  are  left  to  monopolize  the 
pulpit  and  the  school-house,  men  of  intelligence  will 
think  they  do  well  to  reject  the  dictum  of  such  teach- 
ers, and  will  doubt  their  divine  calling. 

Without  the  sharp  intellectual  training  of  our  colleges, 
the  leaders  of  society  would  be  shorn  of  their  power, 
or  wield  it  in  the  fashion  of  semi-barbarians.  But  if 
the  college  be  infidel  or  Jesuitical,  morality  is  under- 
mined, and  the  republic  cannot  stand.  Unless  there  is 
a  positive  Christian  influence  in  our  higher  schools, 
Christianity  will  go  to  the  wall,  and  our  nation  will  be- 
come weak  throuo'h  wickedness.  The  nation  is  at  this 
moment  suffering  at  tlie  hands  of  ignorance  and  im- 
morality in  high  station.  Civilization  perpetuates  itself 
through  the  higher  education.  The  culture  of  the  col- 
lege permeates  society.  If  the  college  is  godless,  the 
civilization  will  be  half  pagan.  If  Christianity  is  fun- 
damental in  elevating  the  race,  the  Christian  college  is 
the  instrument  through  which  to  advance  Christian  civ- 
ilization. Give  to  irreligion  and  infidelity  the  training 
of  the  most  promising  youth  in  our  country  for  one  or 
two  generations,  and  the  fountain  of  our  positive  Chris- 
tian influences  for  the  renovation  of  the  world  will  be 
dried  up. 

There  will  be  no  lack  of  education  in  the  far  West; 
whether  it  will  be  Christian,  is  for  Christian  men  to  de- 
termine. Infidelity  will  not  hesitate  to  ally  to  itself 
the  best  of  scientific  and  literary  culture.  Suppose 
that  young  men  master  the  problems  they  undertake, 
even  if  they  pay  no  attention  to  the  question  of  the 
truthfulness  of  Christianity  and  the  basis  of  its  claims, 
still  they  think  themselves  equal  with  all  their  intel- 
lectual acumen,  to  pronounce  upon  the  highest  spirits 


THE  NEW   WEST.  21 

ual  themes,  concerning  which  they  have  heard  more  or 
less  since  boyhood.  And  if  tliey  do  not  accept  Cliris- 
tianity,  they  hardly  admit  tluit  they  have  not  given 
attention  to  it.  Allow  every  claim  except  the  claims 
of  God  to  be  urged  in  school  days,  and  the  voice  of 
God  will  go  unheeded. 

A  Christian  education  is  not,  however,  likely  to  de- 
velop itself  in  frontier  society  without  the  direct  inter- 
position of  the  men  who  have  a  purpose  to  do  it.  If  no 
attention  is  given  to  it,  irreligion  and  skepticism  will 
educate  the  children.  Allow  the  higher  education  of  a 
frontier  State  to  become  the  football  of  the  average  pol- 
itician, and  Christianity  will  find  no  quiet  abiding  place 
in  it.  The  leading  Christian  men  who  have  lived  in  the 
vicinity  of  these  experiments  are  clear  in  their  testi- 
mony, that  it  is  almost  impossible  to  develop  and  carry 
forward  a  wise  plan  for  the  higher  Christian  education 
in  connection  with  State  institutions.  The  State  man- 
agement is  at  an  early  stage  put  upon  guard  against  the 
interest  of  various  sects,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  anti- 
Christian  influences  stand  pressing  against  the  door  ;  so 
there  is  likely  to  spring  up  a  lack  of  sympathy  with  the 
Christian  element  in  society,  which  indeed,  often  mani- 
fests itself  at  the  outset.  Yet  there  is  no  one  instru- 
mentality for  the  world's  moral  advancement  so  impor- 
tant as  the  Christian  training  of  youth,  who  are  to  be 
the  leaders  of  the  world  in  the  years  next  ensuing.  It 
is  on  this  account,  that  many  parents,  whose  own  lives 
are  fiiilures  morally,  are  anxious  to  secure  education 
under  Christian  teachers  for  their  own  children,  at  the 
time  when  they  most  need  the  restraining  influences  of 
religious  faith  and  precept. 

Unless  the  men  who  propose  to  energize  Christianity 
with  their  own  Inisiness  energy,  establish  the  Christian 
college  in    the    New  West,   and    in    every  generation 


22  THE  NEW  WEST. 

imbue  some  portion  of  the  leaders  of  the  State  with 
the  principles  of  Christian  faith  and  life ;  and  train  a 
ministry  upon  the  ground  adapted  to  the  wants  of  the 
country,  and  train  them  so  thoroughly,  intellectually, 
and  spiritually,  that  they  can  win  a  hearing  and  a  fol- 
lowing ;  and  place  a  Christian  teacher  in  every  school 
district,  —  the}^  will  fail  in  occupying  this  region  for 
their  Master.  The  Christian  college  is  an  "  institution 
for  perpetuating  Christianity  in  the  world."  ^ 

The  grand  movements  for  the  moral  elevation  of  the 
world  have  their  spring  in  the  Christian  school.  The 
Christian  college  for  training  the  leaders  of  society  is 
the  instrument  chosen  of  God,  and  used  age  after  age. 
He  chooses  to  Avork  through  organizations ;  He  has 
honored  and  indorsed  the  Christian  colleo;e.  His  in- 
strument  is  fitted  to  do  His  work.  The  history  of  this 
country  proves  it,  and  shows  the  wisdom  of  founding 
such  colleg-es  for  creatino;  a  Christian  civilization.  If 
we  are  wise,  we  shall  put  this  renovating  power  into 
the  far  West.  Althouu-li  individual  teachers  and  o-rad- 
uates  fall  like  leaves,  the  college  will  endure  and  prove 
a  perpetual  power,  influencing  every  generation  of  the 
state,  growing  through  the  centuries  like  some  gigantic 
tree  on  the  slopes  of  the  Sierra,  whose  life  is  continued 
by  a  foliage  constantly  perishing  and  constantly  re- 
newed. 

The  moral  interests  of  the  New  West  cannot  be  se- 
cured beyond  peradventure  in  any  other  way  than  by 
the  establishment  of  a  Christian  college  for  the  young 
people,  who  will  in  their  maturity  mould  the  state. 
If  large-hearted  givers  will  furnish  a  permanent  sup- 
ply of  well  trained  men  for  leadership  in  society,  and 
exercise  a  constant  influence  for  good  upon  the  flower 

^  J.  P.  Thompson,  I).  D.,  College  Society  Address. 


THE  NEW  WEST.  23 

of  the  youth,  in  an  area  of  country  whose  citizens  will 
very  soon  be  numbered  by  millions  and  which  is  capa- 
ble of  sustainiug  a  vast  population,  they  will  take  rank 
with  the  noblest  benefactors  of  their  race.  Those  men 
are  shortsighted  who  will  only  do  and  die  to-day. 
There  are  many  men  who  are  occupied  with  present 
affairs  with  little  thought  of  the  future.  The  kingdom 
of  God  knows  nothing  of  months  and  years.  A  thou- 
sand years  are  as  one  day.  The  conflict  between  good 
and  evil  will  go  forward  century  after  centiny,  until 
the  perfect  reign  of  peace  ;  and  God's  peace  on  the 
earth  will  never  be  maintained  except  through  the 
reign  of  principles  that  accord  with  the  most  enlight- 
ened reason.  One  generation  must,  then,  join  hands 
with  another  in  buildinu'  those  seminaries  of  learninsc 
which  will  train  the  leaders  of  mankind  to  habits  of 
self-sacrifice  for  the  good  of  others.  Unless  Christian 
men  have  the  forethought,  enterprise,  and  patience  to 
do  this,  the  Golden  Kule  will  never  be  carried  into 
practical  effect  as  the  common  rule  of  life  for  the 
world's  population,  and  the  Golden  Age  of  the  world 
will  never  come. 

Are  there  not  to-day  two  million  sheep  feeding  on 
the  Rio  Grande  ?  One  mio-ht  as  well  build  a  mill  in 
southern  Colorado  without  water  power  or  steam  to 
manufacture  their  wool,  as  to  try  to  build  up  a  Chris- 
tian civilization  on  the  frontier,  —  amid  a  halt'  Mexican 
population,  wandering  herdsmen,  scattered  ranchmen, 
rough  mining  camps,  and  towns  with  a  poi)ulation 
gathered  from  the  four  winds,  —  without  a  Christian 
college.  He  who  founds  a  college  in  a  new  country  is 
planting  the  Christian  pleader,  physician,  pedagogue, 
press,  pulpit,  platforui,  over  a  vast  region  through  all 
ages  of  time.  He  who  puts  his  money  into  Christian 
enterprises  upon  a  foreign  shore  is  a  good  servant  of 


24 


THE  NEW  WEST. 


God  ;  but  he  who  will  be  the  honored  instrument  in 
planting  a  Christian  college  in  the  New  West,  where  it 
is  imperatively  needed  to-day,  will  have  mercy  upon 
his  own  countrymen,  and  deserve  the  gratitude  of  un- 
counted generations.  He  will  in  this  way  exert  an 
influence  for  raising  to  the  heights  of  a  Christian  life 
the  foreign  element  in  the  region  of  the  college,  and 
through  its  unending  roll-call  of  students  bestow  a 
benediction  upon  the  shining  shores  of  far-off  seas  in 
distant  as-es.  The  time  will  not  soon  come  wdien  men 
will  cease  to  send  out  missionaries  ;  but  there  will  not 
be  so  long  the  golden  opportunity  to  become  the  found- 
ers of  Christian  colleges  at  points  in  the  West,  where 
they  are  beyond  doubt  needed  at  this  hour,  and  where 
they  will  wield  a  commanding  power  till  time  shall  be 
no  more. 


CoI.l.KGE    r>UII-l)IN<i    AS   SKEN    KHOM    CASCADE   AvENUK. 

I'idc  p.  72. 


III. 

Historically,  the  principal  college's  of  tlio  world 
have  originated  in  the  instinct  of  the  Christian  ministry 
to  perpetuate  itself.  Twelve  colleges  in  Oxford  claim 
clerical  founders.  The  Enu'lish  iniiversities  have,  how- 
ever,  proved  of  as  much  advantage  to  all  the  leaders  of 
public  opinion  as  to  the  Christian  ministrj^,  since  no 
one  is  fit  for  the  most  sacred  callino;  among  men  unless 
he  has  received  a  well  proportioned  education  as  a 
man.  What  the  minister  needs,  in  his  o-eneral  training^, 
is  what  is  needed  by  all  who  are  liberally  educated. 
Library,  cabinet,  laboratory,  living  teachers,  quicken- 
ing contact  with  fellow  pupils,  are  good  for  parishioner 
■as  well  as  parson.  Unless  the  unrivaled  facilities  for 
studying  natural  science  in  the  New  West  are  seized 
upon,  and  made  the  instruments  of  culture,  we  shall 
find,  growing  up  there,  ill-proportioned  men  who  will 
claim  attention  as  relio-ious  teachers. 

Harvard  and  Yale  were  founded  hy  clergymen  to 
train  men  for  the  pulpit.  But  it  is  now  more  than 
twenty-five  years  since  the  Alumni  of  Yale  College 
enrolled  four  signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Indepen- 
dence, three  members  of  the  convention  formino;  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  a  vice-president, 
seven  members  of  the  cabinet,  four  foreign  ministers, 
eighty-four  judges  of  the  United  States  or  of  State  su- 
preme courts,  one  hundred  seventj^-eight  members  of 
Congress,  forty  governors    and    lieutenant-governors. 


26  THE  NEW   WEST. 

and  one  hundred  forty-one  presidents  and  professors  of 
colleges.  There  are  now  above  eight  thousand  grad- 
uates. 

Harvard  was  called  the  ''  School  of  the  Prophets  " 
for  a  hundred  years.  That  the  college  has  been  of 
some  use  to  the  world  besides  educating  "  prophets," 
is  proved  by  such  names  as  Otis,  Warren,  Hancock, 
Samuel  Adams,  President  Adams — father  and  son, — 
Prescott,  Bancroft,  Motley,  Emerson,  Sumner,  Phillips, 
and  a  host  of  those  who  have  kindled  the  fires  of  pa- 
triotism and  given  life  to  the  Republic.  The  "  proph- 
ets "  of  Harvard  are  heard  all  the  world  over  calling 
upon  public  men  to  submit  themselves  to  discipline  in 
youth,  to  lose  all  narrowness  and  bigotry,  to  cultivate 
that  sense  of  honor  without  which  nations  deserve  to 
perish. 

Dartmouth  College  furnished  thirty-five  hundred 
and  fifty  graduates  in  ninety-six  years,  among  whom 
were  thirty-one  judges  of  the  United  States  or  of  State 
supreme  courts,  seventy-six  members  of  congress,  two 
United  States  cabinet  ministers,  four  ambassadors  to 
foreign  courts,  fifteen  governors,  and  one  hundred 
thirty-one  presidents  or  professors  of  colleges.  Web- 
ster and  Choate  have  been  worth  incalculably  more  to 
America  than  all  the  money  given  for  the  endowment 
of  Dartmouth  College. 

Princeton  College  in  its  first  century  not  only  edu- 
cated nearly  four  hundred  fifty  ministers,  and  fifty-four 
presidents  and  professors  in  colleges,  but  it  trained  for 
public  service  a  president  and  vice-presidents,  mem- 
bers of  the  cabinet,  judges  of  the  United  States  or  of 
State  supreme  courts,  members  of  Congress,  governors 
of  States,  —  not  less  than  one  hundred  sixty-eight  per- 
sons occupying  the  highest  joositions  in  our  country. 
Twenty-seven  hundred  graduates  left  Princeton   in   its 


THE  NEW  WEST.  27 

first  liundrecl  years,  making  their  influence  felt  in  every 
corner  of  our  country. 

These  colleges,  founded  by  clergymen  to  give  a  well 
proportioned  cidture  to  the  Christian  ministry  of  all 
generations,  have,  also,  trained  the  leading  public  men 
of  America.  Let  no  man,  therefore,  despise  the  prac- 
tical wisdom  of  that  Society  which  has  sought  to  estab- 
lish Christian  colleges  at  strategic  points  in  the  Old 
West,  and  which  aims  to  do  the  same  work  in  the  New 
West.  The  donors  to  the  American  College  and  Edu- 
cation Society  will  do  more  in  shaping  the  distant  fu- 
ture of  the  United  States  than  any  other  band  of  the 
same  number  in  the  nation.  It  will  be  impossible  to 
plant  a  Christian  college  in  Colorado,  without  doing 
much,  thereby,  toward  modifj'ing  the  future  of  New 
Mexico,  Arizona,  Utah,  Wyoming,  and  every  rising 
State  in  that  reo;ion. 

Remove  from  America  the  influence  of  the  seventy 
thousand  persons  who  graduated  at  American  colleges 
before  1856,  and  you  would  put  out  the  light  of  Church 
and  State.  The  statisticians  of  thirty  years  ago,  pre- 
pared lists  enumerating,  —  six  hundred  thirty  mem- 
bers of  Congress,  four  hundred  judges  in  supreme 
courts,  two  hundred  governors  and  lieutenant-govern- 
ors, one  hundred  sixty  presidents  and  four  hundred 
professors  of  colleges,  among  the  thirty-five  thousand 
graduates  of  America  at  that  date.  The  bearing  of  this 
statement  upon  the  argument  of  this  paper  is  made 
clear  by  the  fact  that  of  the  forty-two  thousand  grad- 
uates before  1850,  thirty-six  thousand  of  them  were 
trained  in  colleges  under  the  leading  management  of 
Congregational  and  Presljyterian  Christians.^  This 
fact  proves  that,  historically,  these  denominations 
have  taken  the  leadership  in  the  higher  education  of 

^  Eicjhth  Report  of  the  College  Socielij. 


28  THE  NEW  WEST. 

America  ;  and  that  the  workmg  poHcy  of  these  colleges 
has  been  so  unsectarian  as  to  practically  meet  the 
wants  of  Christian  people  of  eveiy  name ;  and  that  the 
general  public  has  demanded  colleges  in  which  the 
claims  of  a  relio'ious  life  are  recoo-nized.  One  hundred 
and  four,  of  the  first  one  hundred  and  nineteen  colleges 
established  in  the  country,  are  of  a  decidely  Christian 
character  and  faith. ^ 

It  is,  therefore,  absolutely  certain  that  colleges  in 
America  have  been  in  the  main  founded  by  Christian 
people  for  the  sake  of  educating  a  ministry,  and  train- 
ing the  leading  minds  of  the  nation.  And  it  is  abso- 
lutely certain  that  the  American  College  and  Education 
Society,  which  has  been  engaged  for  many  years  in 
buildino;  Christian  coUeo-es  in  the  West,  is  workino-  in 
the  historic  line,  the  line  of  certain  success,  and  that 
it  will  accomplish  what  it  undertakes  to  do.  It  is  the 
organ  of  a  Christian  sentiment,  as  prevalent  and  power- 
ful as  Christianity  itself.  The  founding  of  Christian 
colleges  is  essential  to  the  propagation  of  Christianity ; 
this  is  proved  by  the  history  of  the  progress  of  the 
kingdom  of  God  in  the  world  ;  this  work  will,  therefore, 
be  carried  forward.  And  it  is  now  the  very  hour  for 
planting  a  strong  Christian  college  in  the  New  West, 
which  includes  territorially  one  third  of  the  United 
States,  and  contains  at  this  hour  a  vigorous  population 
busily  laying  the  foundation  of  future  States.  The  foun- 
dation of  one  State  is  so  fiir  laid,  that  it  has  been  received 
into  the  Union  ;  and  a  Christian  college  ought  to  be 
planted  there  at  once  by  the  Christian  men  who  intend 
to  take  and  to  hold  that  part  of  the  continent  for  Christ. 

Does  not  the  Christian  College  bear  the  same  rela- 
tion to  the  leaders  of  Church  and  State  that  the  common 
school  does  to  the  average  mind  .?     Does  it  not  educate 

'   Thirteenth  Report  of  the  College  Society. 


THE  NEW  WEST.  29 

certain  men,  who  in  turn  become  colleges  to  the  people 
whose  school-days  are  short?  He  ^vho  founds  a  Chris- 
tian college  is  training  Christian  merchants,  editors, 
teachers,  lawyers,  physicians,  statesmen,  and  establish- 
ing Christian  instrumentalities  innumerable ;  and  his 
work  will  continue  till  day  and  night  cease.  No  light- 
houses on  the  coast  are  so  useful  as  these  Christian  lights 
planted  on  the  borders  of  civilization  ;  no  artesian  wells, 
irrigating  arid  wastes,  of  such  service  to  mankind  as 
these  fountains  of  Christian  life  ;  no  seeds  so  fruitful  as 
these  Christian  colleges  for  hundreds  of  generations. 
Do  not  trained  intellectual  forces  rule  society  ?  Is  there 
no  demand  for  mind  in  this  world  ?  Are  not  the  insti- 
tutions, whose  business  it  is  to  develop  mental  power, 
vital  to  civilization  ?  And  is  it  not  essential  that  they 
be  under  Christian  management,  if  the  divine  law  of 
love  to  God  and  love  to  man  is  to  rule  the  world  ? 
Shall  our  Christian  workers  relinquish  their  hold  on 
the  centres  of  power  ?  If  the  religious  principles  which 
underlie  the  best  social  life,  and  which  are  essential  to 
self  government,  are  to  pervade  the  New  West,  and 
control  its  destinies,  there  is  no  way  in  which  Christian 
men  can  aid  so  efhciently  as  by  founding  a  Christian 
college  early  in  the  development  of  that  region.  If 
the  thinkers  of  that  wild,  beautiful  country,  of  promise 
so  vast  in  the  future,  are  trained  under  Christian 
teachers,  their  thoughts  will  develop  into  Christian 
States.  Is  it  not  a  noble  thing  to  aim  for,  to  direct 
the  formative  powers,  to  bring  the  leading  mental 
forces  of  awakening  empires  into  captivity  to  the  law 
of  love  as  manifested  in  the  Gospel,  the  law  of  self- 
sacrifice  for  the  good  of  others.  The  men  who  give 
their  money  to  this  work  touch  the  sources  of  Christian 
progress  in  our  country  in  the  near  and  distant  future. 
If  it  is  wise  to  clothe  and  feed  America,  it  is  Christian 


30  THE  NEW   WEST. 

wisdom  to  use  a  part  of  the  money  made  in  tlie  busi- 
ness, for  endowing  the  educated  men  of  America  with 
the  thoughts  of  God. 

This  is  not  a  petty  question,  as  to  giving  a  little  in- 
struction in  Latin  granniiar,  algebra,  and  rhetoric. 
The  Jesuits  would,  as  soon  as  not,  do  that ;  and  all 
irreligious  powers  would  be  glad  to  combine  to  do  it. 
But  it  is  a  question,  whether  or  not  the  men  of  an 
earnest  and  aggressive  Christian  faith  and  life  are 
quick  sighted  and  far  sighted  enough  to  seize  on  the 
instruments  of  education,  for  no  dull  and  narrow  secta- 
rian ends,  but  for  the  purpose  of  filling  the  minds  of 
wide-awake  young  men  with  principles  of'  morality 
and  faith  and  love,  which  are  the  true  foundation  of 
the  Republic,  and  of  all  good  to  the  human  race.  Shall 
this  work  be  neglected  or  delegated  to  those  whose 
spiritual  vision  is  clouded  by  the  haze  of  old  supersti- 
tion or  of  new  unbelief?  Shall  we  lay  up  beams  of 
silver-  and  gold  to  glisten  in  the  eastern  sun,  or  shall 
we  use  our  silver  and  gold  for  laying  the  foundations 
of  many  generations  in  some  Christian  temple  of  learn- 
ing, which  will  be  illumined  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  Avhich 
will  send  its  light  into  every  mountain  valley,  and  along 
the  borders  of  every  stream,  and  across  every  wide 
plain,  in  a  third  part  of  our  continent? 

Could  we  for  a  moment  examine,  somewhat  in  de- 
tail, the  work  already  inaugurated  by  the  colleges  un- 
der the  care  of  the  College  Society,  we  should  see  that 
the  planting  of  Christian  colleges  in  the  newer  j^ortions 
of  our  country  is  second  in  importance  to  no  work  we 
imdertake  for  America.  An  analysis  of  the  army  of 
the  West  and  Northwest  shows  that  the  salvation  of 
the  Union  in  time  of  peril  was  due  in  no  small  measure 
to  the  influence  of  these  colleges,  in  founding  churches 


THE  NEW   WEST.  31 

and  in  moulding  public  opinion  in  the  northern  part 
of  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi.  It  is  impossible  to 
overestimate  the  value  to  the  nation  of  the  anti-slavery 
ideas  promulgated  throughout  the  West  in  the  early 
history  of  Oberlin,  the  pouring  out  of  officers  for  the 
army  from  every  college,  the  inlluence  of  men  in  the 
ranks  who  were  college  graduates  and  accustomed  to 
lead  in  social  life,  and  the  moral  weight  of  men  who 
swarmed  from  the  home  missionary  churches.  As 
patriots  we  ought  to  train  the  New  West  to  an  intelli- 
gent citizenship  under  decidedly  Christian  influences. 

It  is  a  matter  of  history  that  the  institutions  fostered 
by  our  College  Society  have  been  fountain  heads  of 
Christian  life  in  the  West.  Pour  Christianity  into  the 
fountain,  and  it  will  flow  out  in  life-giving  streams. 
God's  channel  of  mercy  to  the  earth  runs  through  the 
Christian  college.  Those  persons  are  ill-informed  who 
speak  lightly  of  the  influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in 
moving  upon  the  minds  of  j'oung  men  in  college,  and 
the  far  reachino;  results  when  those  who  are  to  become 
leaders  of  the  nation  acknowledge  God  as  the  guide  of 
their  youth.  Did  not  one  hundred  and  seventy  young 
men  become  Christians  in  six  revivals  in  Dartmouth 
College  ?  Did  not  five  hundred  men  acknowledge 
themselves  followers  of  the  Son  of  Man  in  fourteen  out 
of  the  twenty  revivals  in  Yale  College  during  its  first 
century  ?  Were  there  not  three  hundred  conversions 
in  Amherst  College  within  thirty  years  ? 

In  Illinois,  Wabash,  and  Marietta  colleges,  there  were 
twenty  revivals  recorded  in  eighteen  years  before 
1848.  One  hundred  and  fourteen  of  the  first  one  hun- 
dred and  thirty-one  graduates  were  Christians.  In 
Marietta,  seventy-five  per  cent,  of  the  four  hundred 
and  four  graduates  in  thirty-eight  years  have  been 
Christians,   one   third   of  them   converted    in   collcire. 


32  THE  NEW   WEST. 

Did  not  Major  Williams,  of  New  London,  do  o-ood  ser- 
vice  to  the  divine  kingdom,  in  bis  annual  donation  to- 
ward the  expenses  of  Marietta  during  ten  years,  at  a 
critical  time  in  the  history  of  the  college  ?  Without 
him,  or  some  man  like  him,  there  Avould  have  been  no 
college.  Wabash  was  established  by  a  handful  of  poor 
home  missionaries  kneeling  in  the  forest  on  a  Novem- 
ber day,  dedicating  the  frozen  ground  and  its  cloak  of 
snow  to  Almighty  God.  Three  thousand  students  on 
that  ground  have  been  trained  under  Christian  teach- 
ers. Fourteen  years  witnessed  nine  revivals.  Four 
fifths  of  the  o'raduates  of  the  Beloit  Colleo-e  have  o-one 
out  to  the  world  as  Christian  men.  Oberlin  has  g-rown 
up  in  a  constant  revival.  Its  light  is  like  that  of  the 
sun,  illuminatino;  a  vast  area  of  the  W^est  and  South. 
Christian  students  have  gone  out  like  an  army  to  take 
the  kina-dom  of  heaven  bv  force.  The  Western  Re- 
serve  Colleo"e,  founded  bv  home  missionaries  to  train 
home  missionaries,  has  had  in  all  departments  not  less 
than  five  thousand  students.  It  has  been  not  uncom- 
mon to  find  from  two  thirds  to  four  fifths  of  the  whole 
number  of  pupils  at  any  given  time  enrolled  as  men  of 
Christian  character  and  influence. 

The  colleges  planted  by  the  American  College  and 
Education  Society  have  rendered  such  efficient  aid  to 
Christian  families  in  educating  their  children,  and  they 
have,  also,  proved  so  positive  a  power  in  making 
known  the  claims  of  a  religious  life  to  students  who 
have  not  previously  heard  the  Gospel  message,  that 
John  Todd  did  well  in  saying  that  we  have  every  evi- 
dence of  the  divine  approval  in  this  noble  work,  ex- 
cept that  no  archangel  has  thrust  down  a  trumpet  to 
blow  the  approl)ati(jn  of  God  into  our  ears.^ 

'  Plain  Leder^. 


THE  SEW    WEST.  33 

Does  it  need  to  be  siiid  that  no  such  beneficent 
results  have  been  known,  or  are  likely  to  be  known, 
where  Christian  people  neglect  to  plant  the  Christian 
college,  and  leave  the  youtii  to  be  cared  ibr  by  luibe- 
lievers  or  Ijy  Jesuits  ? 

How  much  has  Ijeen  wrouglit  by  the  moulding  Chris- 
tian intiuence  of  these  colleges  in  the  valley  of  the 
Mississippi,  even  in  the  brief  period  since  they  w'ere 
founded,  can  never  Ije  known  hy  statistics.  The  num- 
ber of  graduates  who  look  to  the  College  Society  as  a 
fosterino;  mother,  is  now  nearlv  three  thousand.  It  is 
probable  that  thirty  thousand  students  have  been  in 
attendance  for  a  greater  or  less  lenu:th  of  time.^ 

No  small  portion  of  the  twenty-seven  thousand  stu- 
dents who  have  not  completed  the  full  course  of  study 
have  become  teachers  of  common  schools  in  the  West. 
It  is  impossible  to  give  approxiuiate  figures  as  to  the 
numbers  so  engaged.  One  year  there  were  five  hun- 
dred and  thirty  Oberlin  students  employed  as  teachers; 
there  have  been  several  hundred  each  year  during 
twenty  years.^  Proba1)ly,  from  fifteen  to  twenty  thou- 
sand district  schools  have  been  taught  by  students  from 
the  i^reparatory  departments  of  the  colleges  aided  by 
our  College  Society ;  besides  a  vast  number  of  acade- 
mies which  have  been  taught  by  graduates  of  these 
colleges.  These  colleges  have  already  served  as 
Normal  Schools  to  an  extent  little  looked  for  by  their 
founders.  Is  it  not  then  essential  to  plant  the  Chris- 
tian college  in  the  New  West,  to  develop  the  common 
school  system  among  Mormons,  Mexicans,  Indians,  and 
the  heterogeneous  border  population  ? 

If  it    be    true    that  American    colleges    have    been 

'  Dr.  J.  E.  Roy,  Cou(jr<-gitiiinial   Quurlerbj,  January,  187  7. 
'^  President  Fairchikl. 
3 


34  THE  NEW  WEST. 

founded,  in  the  first  instance,  like  those  of  the  Old 
World,  for  maintaining  an  educated  ministry,  it  is  in 
point  to  inquire  concerning  the  relation  of  the  Chris- 
tian college  to  clerical  ranks,  since  it  is  mainly  upon 
this  ground  that  the  college  is  early  planted  in  the 
home  missionary  field.  The  emphasis  placed  by  Amer- 
ican churches  upon  an  educated  ministry  is  shown 
by  the  fiict,  that  of  nine  hundred  Congregational  min- 
isters in  Connecticut  before  1832,  all  but  thirty- 
three  were  college  graduates.  Of  the  eleven  hundred 
alumni  of  Andover  Seminary  before  1851,  only  fifty- 
eight  had  not  received  a  college  education.^ 

The  relio-ious  influence  of  the   colleo-e    has    a  vital 
bearino;  on  maintainino-  and  increasino-  the  number  of 

O  o  O 

Gospel  heralds.  It  is  estimated  that  one  quarter  of 
our  ministry  become  Christians  in  colleo-e.  One  half 
of  the  ministers  from  those  colleges,  aided  by  the  Col- 
lege Society,  commenced  their  Christian  course  in  term 
time.'^  John  Robinson,  the  leader  of  the  Pilgrims, 
John  Cotton,  Jonathan  Edwards  —  father  and  son,  — 
Samuel  Hopkins,  Ebenezer  Porter,  Moses  Stuart,  B.  B. 
Edwards,  E.  E.  Cornelius,  B.  B.  Wisner,  E.  N.  Kirk, 
and  a  host  of  the  most  useful  ministers  in  America, 
betjan  a  Christian  life  in  colleg-e.'^ 

The  Christian  college,  designed  to  train  Christian 
preachers,  creates  an  atmosphere  favorable  for  recruit- 
ing the  ministry.  The  colleges  of  America  have  met 
the  demand,  furnishing  most  ministers  when  most 
needed,  in  the  early  settlement  of  the  regions  where 
they  are  located.  When  Harvard  was  two  hundred* 
years  old,  more  than  one  fourth  of  her  graduates  were 
enrolled  as  ministers;  during  the  first  sixty  years,  more 

1  .lolin  Kill)ori),  A.  M.,  in  Tyler's  Prai/erfor  Collcrjes,  rev.  ed.,  p.  31 G. 
"  J>}inan  Whiting,  College  Sorieli/  Addres'^. 
*  Sixteenth  Report,  College  Socieiy. 


THE  NEW  WEST.  o'y 

than  one  half  became  pastors.  Yale  has  given  above 
two  thousand  graduates  to  this  work,  —  about  one 
fourth  of  all.  During  the  first  twelve  years,  three 
fourths  of  her  alumni  entered  the  ministry,  and  during 
the  first  thirty  years  nearly  one  half.  The  New  Eng- 
land theology  has  been  shaped  in  no  small  degree  by 
thinkers  trained  in  this  college.  Forty-six  out  of  nine- 
ty-nine of  the  first  graduates  of  Dartmouth  entered 
the  ministry  ;  ten  years  ago  the  list  showed  seven  hun- 
dred. Up  to  the  year  1857,  forty-three  per  cent,  of 
the  alumni  of  Middlebury  College  were  preachers ; 
the  proportion  varied  little  from  this  at  Amherst. 
One  fourth  of  the  graduates  of  Brown  University  have 
become  ministers,  ai,id  nearly  one  half  of  the  eleven 
hundred  sent  out  by  Wesleyan  University.  Thirty- 
four  per  cent,  of  the  graduates  of  ten  New  England 
colleges  previous  to  1845  were  pastors.^  Out  of  thirty- 
five  thousand  alumni  of  the  colleges  of  the  United 
States,  thirty  years  ago,  between  eight  and  nine  thou- 
sand were  ministers  of  the  Gospel.  The  first  college 
west  of  the  Alleghany  mountains,  Jefferson,  numbers 
nearly  seventeen  hundred  alumni ;  of  whom  more  than 
half  have  been  preachers. 

The  colleges  nurtured  by  the  College  Society  have 
trained  great  numbers  of  home  missionaries.  More 
than  one  third  of  the  alumni  of  Western  Reserve  be- 
fore 18G8,  were  pastors.  Of  the  first  ninety-four  grad- 
uates of  Illinois  College,  forty-five  became  preachers, 
rendering  invaluable  service  in  the  West.  Wabash 
gave  forty-five  of  the  first  sixty-five.  Marietta  sent 
sixty-five  from  the  first  one  hundred  thirteen  ;  at  this 
day  her  ministers  have  made  a  record  in  more  than 
twenty  States  of  the  Union.  In  1868,  Beloit  had  fur- 
nished   fifty-two    men   from    one    hundred    thirty-four 

^   Thirteenth  RrjiO'-t,  College  Society. 


36  THE  yElV    WEST. 

graduates.  Two  hundred  fifty  churches  have  l)een  sup- 
pUed  from  this  college.  Iowa  College  has  given  forty 
per.  cent  of  her  graduates  to  the  ministerial  office. 
The  sun  never  sets  upon  her  sons  and  daughters  en- 
gaged in  missionary  work.^  The  Western  colleges, 
aided  by  the  College  Society,  have  already  trained 
from  seventeen  to  eighteen  hundred  pastors.^  The 
American  Home  Missionary  Society  has  employed  a 
portion  of  these  students  in  nineteen  hundred  and 
forty-eight  towns.  The  Congregational  churches  west 
of  the  eastern  line  of  Ohio,  comprising  only  twenty- 
nine  per  cent,  of  the  whole  membership  o-f  the  coun- 
try, are  now  furnishing  forty-eight  per  cent,  of  our 
candidates  for  the  ministry' .^  The  six  interior  States 
furnish  only  one  candidate  less  than  the  six  New  Eng- 
land States.  altliouo;h  the  latter  have  twice  the  church 
membershij)  of  the  former.'* 

Does  it  need  to  be  inquired  whether  the  average 
Western  State  university  can  be  relied  upon  to  train 
home  missionaries  ?  Michigan  University,  in  1876, 
with  three  hundred  fifty-two  professors  of  religion 
among  more  than  a  thousand  students  had  only  nine 
candidates  for  the  ministry.^  In  1872,  seven  years' 
record  of  our  theoloo-ical  seminaries  showed  that  sev- 
enty-eight  per  cent,  of  the  students  from  the  West 
came  from  colleges  noinished  by  our  College  Society.*^ 
If  the  West  is  left  to  be  supplied  with  a  Christian  min- 
istry by  State  universities,  the  people  will  perish  by  a 
famine  of  the  words  of  the  Lord.  Born  of  no  distinc- 
tively Christian  purpose,  and  no  self-sacrifice  ;  not  un- 

^  Tyler,  Prayer  for  Collefjes,  n-v.  ed.,  ]).  284. 

2  Dr.  Hoy,  Confjregational  Quarlerl;/,  .January,  18  77. 

*  Thirtieth  Report,  College  Society. 

*  President  Cliajun.         , 

*  Tyler,  Prayer  for  Collef/cs,  rev.  ed.,  p.  "iSi. 

*  Tirciily-niiith  Itcporl,  ('ollc(/e  Sucitly. 


THE  NEW  WEST.  39 

frequently  with  instructors  mIio  are  little  imbued  with 
the  spirit  of  the  Gospel;  subject  more  or  less  to  politi- 
cal intermeddling,  —  the  State  university  is  not  likely 
soon  to  enter  into  competition  with  the  Christian  col- 
lege for  the  training  of  missionaries.  Kill  out  the 
Christian  college,  and  the  supply  of  home  and  foreign 
missionaries  will  be  cut  off. 

Unless  the.  Christian  college  is  built  upon  the  ground 
where  it  is  needed,  it  fails  to  do  its  work.  While  it  is 
true  that  one  live  college  will  make  itself  felt  to  the 
ends  of  the  world,  it  is  not  true  that  it  will  be  so 
largely  useful  at  the  Antipodes,  as  it  will  l)e  to  give 
the  graduate  of  the  primal  college  money  enough  to 
build  another  school  in  that  strange,  wild  country, 
where  he  has  located.  The  divine  command  —  Go 
preach  —  leads  through  training  schools.  But  our 
home  missionary  Secretaries  find  it  difficult  to  man  the 
front ;  and  the  future  years  are  calling  loudly  as  the 
present.  "  It  is  the  sons  of  the  West,  educated  on  her 
own  soil,  who  must  preach  the  Gospel  to  the  West."  ^ 

Poverty  in  youth  is  likeh'  to  lead  a  clergyman  to 
habits  of  self-denial,  and  to  adapt  him  to  the  average 
man.  But  the  poor  young  man  of  the  West  cannot 
come  East  to  be  educated  ;  and  if  he  does,  the  East 
ma\^  keep  him.  Three  fourths  of  the  pupils  of  our 
countrj^  are  of  slender  means,  or  poor.^  The  college 
must  be  planted  in  the  inexpensive  West,  near  the  men 
to  be  benefited  by  it.  Would  a  poor  widow  in  New 
Euii-land  send  her  son  to  Colorado  to  be  educated?  It 
is  only  a  little  further  to  send  him  to  England.  Our 
fathers  sent  a  few  pupils  to  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  but 
thev  quickly  decided    to    build    a  Cambrido-e  at  their 

1  Lyman  Hoocher. 

2  Pri.ft'ssur  Iladdurk,  College  Society  Address. 


40  THE  NEW  WEST. 

own  doors  ;  and  to  send  beggars  to  England  to  raise 
money  for  their  college  :  and  Old  England  gave  it 
most  generonsly. 

'■  We  cannot  expect  that  a  university  at  Brunswick 
or  Burlington  will  diffuse  the  same  healthful  glow 
amono;  the  inhabitants  of  Wisconsin  and  Iowa,  as 
among  the  population  closely  encircling  it.  We  might 
as  well  expect  that  the  flowers  which  bloom  in  Maine 
or  Vermont  would  sweeten  the  air  of  the  prairies ; 
that  one  forest,  one  mountain  range,  would  purify  the 
atmosphere  of  our  entire  land.  The  Western  waters 
cannot  be  navigated  by  steamers  all  whose  engines  are 
kept  at  the  east.  Our  higher  schools  must  be  near  to 
the  communities  which  they  would  attract  with  a  mag- 
netic power."  ^ 

The  rich  are  few.  It  is,  therefore,  not  strange  that 
the  majority  of  those  wdio  enter  the  most  self  denying 
service  are  not  from  rich  families.  A  Avidow  in  Vermont 
reads  the  life  of  Harriet  Newell,  and,  having  no  money 
for  missions,  she  o-ives  her  four  sons  to  the  service. 
Another  woman  asks,  who  among  her  eleven  children 
will  preach  the  Word  in  foreign  lands  ;  and,  when  one 
volunteers,  she  sells  her  gold  beads  to  buy  classical 
books  for  him.  The  need  of  missionaries  ten  years 
hence  should  lead  us  to  plant  the  Christian  college 
within  reach  of  self  denying  Christian  families  in  the 
West.  The  colleges  nourished  by  the  College  Society 
have  already  sent  abroad  one  hundred  and  twenty-five 
men,  and  many  women,  as  foreign  missionaries.^  This 
is  more  than  were  sent  by  Dartmouth,  Amherst,  Wil- 
liams, and  Middlebury,  before  1856. 

Colorado  College,  at  Colorado  Springs,  is  more  than 
five  hundred  miles  from  any  other   Christian  college. 

*  Professor  Edwards  A.  Park,  Coller/f  Society  Address. 

-  Joscjili  E.  lltjy,  I).  1).,  <  'i)>ii/r/f/iili<inal  Qimrterbj,  Jamiary,  1877. 


CHEYENNE    MOUNTAIN,    AS   SEEN    FROVI   TEJON    STREET. 


THE  NEW  WEST.  43 

The  three  nearest  are  those  noljle  and  needy  enter- 
prises, Drury,  Wasliburn,  and  Doane.  Colorado  Col- 
lege is  further  by  rail  from  Doane  than  it  is  from  An- 
dover  to  Oberlin ;  more  distant  by  rail  from  Washburn 
than  from  Vermont  University  to  Hudson's  Bay ;  as  far 
from  Drury  as  from  Williams  College  to  Lake  Superior. 
If  the  children  of  the  more  than  one  hundred  and 
twenty-five  Christian  churches  in  Colorado  are  ever 
trained  for  home  or  foreign  missionary  service,  they 
must  have  a  Christian  college  in  Colorado.  No  gifts  of 
money  to  foreign  shores,  or  to  any  other  instrumental- 
ity for  Christian  labor  than  that  of  the  College  Society, 
will  supply  the  men  needed  for  the  whole  work  of  the 
Church.  Christian  colleges  must  be  planted  —  not  too 
remote  from  each  other  —  in  the  very  neighborhood  of 
the  young  men  who  desire  to  bear  an  honorable  part 
in  brino'incr  in  the  reio-n  of  God,  and  who  will  band  to- 
gether  to  carry  the  Gospel  to  every  hamlet  on  plain  or 
mountain,  and  to  far  countries.  The  business  of  rais- 
ing up  the  men  is  fundamental  to  the  growth  of  Chris- 
tianity, and  the  Society  which  is  doing  this  ought  to 
receive  the  hearty  support  of  our  churches.  It  cer- 
tainly will  receive  generous  gifts  from  the  most  thought- 
ful men  ;  the  more  grenerous.  if  the  inconsiderate  ""ive 
little. 

It  can  require  only  a  slight  knowledge  of  the  condi- 
tion of  the  New  West,  to  determine  that  the  founding 
of  a  Christian  colleii:e  in  Colorado  is  the  first  thing;  to 
jye  done  in  pushing  Christian  work  in  that  region.  Col- 
orado is  sufficiently  developed  to  warrant  establishing 
a  college  ;  other  localities  in  the  New  West  will  not  call 
for  similar  work  for  some  years.  But  these  are  the 
very  years  in  Avhich  a  home  missionary  training  school 
is  needed,  in  the  region  where  so  many  new  churches 
will  be  soon  founded.     The  distances  are  magnificent, 


44  THE  NEW    WEST. 

and  if  Santa  Fe  is  three  hundred  fifty  miles  from  Colo- 
rado CoUeo-e,  it  is  at  least  two  thousand  miles  nearer 
than  it  is  to  Harvard  and  Andover ;  and  it  is  much 
more  likely  that  the  Christian  students  of  Colorado 
Springs  will  be  ready  to  act  as  home  missionaries  in 
Arizona  than  that  Harvard  and  Andover  men  will  go 
there.  It  is  practically  easier  to  obtain  home  mission- 
aries from  the  West  than  from  the  East.  The  Western 
man  belongs  to  a  moving  family.  The  grandfather 
lived  in  Connecticut ;  the  flxther  in  Illinois  ;  the  son  is 
in  Colorado ;  the  great-grandson  will  certainly  go  to 
Arizona,  or  crowd  into  Mexico  to  preach  the  Gospel ; 
and  the  chances  are  that  he  will  be  a  better  missionary 
than  if  he  had  been  born  in  Connecticut. 

Colorado  College  is  a  thousand  miles  from  any  the- 
ological seminary.  What  shall  we  do  about  it?  The 
time  is  not  at  hand,  but  it  is  not  distant,  wdien  a  strong 
theologian  must  be  planted  upon  the  Rocky  Mountain 
plateau,  to  grapple  with  unbelief  as  he  finds  it  in  the 
New  West,  and  to  train  young  men  there  for  Christian 
enterprise.  A  student  from  Holsteinborg  in  Green- 
land, within  the  Arctic  circle,  would  not  have  to  travel 
so  far  to  Andover  as  a  student  from  Colorado  Springs. 
A  student  from  Vancouver's  Island  moving  in  an  air 
line,  will  reach  Colorado  College  almost  as  soon  as  a 
Colorado  student  can  reach  Chicago  Seminary.  Some- 
time between  now  and  the  perfect  reign  of  Christ,  there 
will  be  opened  upon  this  mountain  plateau  a  fountain 
from  which  will  flow  home  missionary  influences  ;  and 
the  day  cannot  be  put  far  off,  unless  the  millennium  is 
to  dawn  late  in  the  New  West.  It  is  liable  to  dawn  late, 
if  we  consider  only  the  wild  excesses  of  new  mining 
camps,  religious  indinbrencc  and  unbelief  in  village  and 
city,  the  moral  disadvantages  of  sparse  farming  settle- 
ments, and  the  strange  life  of  the  "  cow-boys." 


THE  NEW    WEST.  45 

It  is  indeed  true,  that  the  power  of  Christianity  — 
what  there  is  of  it  —  is  nowhere  more  fresh  and  hfe- 
giving  than  in  the  New  West.  As  good  society  can  be 
found  at  the  base  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  as  anywhere 
on  the  phmet.  But  the  Christian  people  there  will 
need  constant  reinforcement  from  the  East,  in  order  to 
conquer  and  hold  this  region.  And  there  is  no  way  in 
which  they  can  be  so  effectually  aided  as  Ijy  the  estab- 
Hshment  of  a  Christian  College. 

Is  not  Colorado  College  at  this  moment  an  important 
point  in  Christian  strategy  ?  It  is  beyond  the  great 
plains,  in  the  immediate  neighborhood  of  the  Mormon 
and  the  Indian,  and  the  Mexican  element  of  our  Re- 
public, as  well  as  in  contiguity  with  regions  that  will 
be  the  front  of  the  home  missionary  field  for  the  next 
fifty  years. 

Are  there  not  eighty  thousand  Mormons  to  be  con- 
verted ?  Mormon  separation  from  civilization  has  been 
broken  up  by  the  advent  of  the  railway  and  the  Gen- 
tile. It  is  only  through  Christian  education  that  the 
Mormons  will  l^e  separated  from  polygamy.  The  way 
is  now  open  for  introducing  this  instrumentality.  A 
progressive  spirit  is  leading-  a  large  part  of  the  people 
to  desire  education  for  their  children,  that  they  may 
equal  their  Gentile  neighbors.  There  are  no  free 
schools  in  Utah,  and  the  establishment  of  Christian  in- 
struction of  advanced  o-rade  will  win  a  larijje  Mormon 
patronage.  It  is  at  this  moment  possible  by  a  judicious 
system  to  introduce  Christian  teachers  of  private  schools 
at  various  points  in  Utah.  The  way  may  be  thus  pre- 
pared for  free  schools  within  a  few  years ;  and  this  ter- 
ritory will  be  ready  to  become  a  State.  A  compara- 
tively small  amount  of  money  woidd    go  far  towards 


46  THE  NEW   WEST. 

maintaining  scores  of  teachers,  who  would  earn  a  por- 
tion of  their  living  by  tuition.  But  this  work  cannot 
be  clone  to  the  best  advantage  without  means  of  sup- 
plementing the  pay  of  teachers,  at  this  time,  when  the 
Mormon  prejudice  is  first  yielding. 

Judicious  men  are  at  the  present  time  attempting  to 
establish  a  Christian  academy  at  Salt  Lake.  There  are 
persons  in  Utah  who  will  do  much  toward  founding 
this  enterprise.  Generous  friends  have  already  ap- 
peared in  the  East.  Any  one  who  knows  the  com- 
mercial resources  of  Salt  Lake,  and  of  the  region  of 
which  it  is  the  natural  centre,  must  consider  the  future 
of  such  an  institution  as  one  of  great  promise.  There 
are  already  twenty-five  thousand  people  gathered  here, 
of  whom,  perhaps,  five  thousand  are  Gentiles.  The 
ability  of  the  western  slope  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  to 
maintain  population  is  very  great,  and  it  is  only  a  ques- 
tion of  time  when  the  Christian  college  will  grow  up 
from  the  Christian  academy.  Those  persons  who  in- 
vest money  in  providing  Christian  instructors  for  Utah 
will  not  only  do  missionary  work  among  the  Mormons, 
but  lay  the  foundations  for  a  noble  Christian  State  in 
the  near  future.  The  Presbyterian  educational  work 
in  southern  Utah  is  eminently  successful.  It  will  not 
be  long  before  the  many  sons  of  Mormon  parents  will 
avail  themselves  of  Christian  schools  at  their  own  doors ; 
and  some  Avill  take  advanced  studies  in  Colorado  Col- 
lege. It  is  to-day  of  tlie  utmost  importance  to  estab- 
lish academical  work  in  Utah,  and  to  hasten  the  time 
when  a  Christian  college,  well  endowed,  will  rise  near 
the  present  site  of  the  Mormon  Endowment  House. 

Such  an  enterprise  can,  however,  achieve  the  highest 
success  only  as  it  stands  upon  its  own  merits  as  an  in- 
strument of  Christian  education.  If  it  is  in  the  least 
mider  ecclesiastical  control,  it  will  never  gain  the  con- 


THE  NEW   WEST.  47 

fidonce  of  all  the  people.  Ages  of  experiment  have 
shown  that  when  an  infant  college  is  planted  in  a  re- 
gion where  it  is  needed,  it  will  best  merit  the  patron- 
age of  all  Iriends  of  the  higher  edncation  by  being  free 
from  jiolitical  and  free  from  ecclesiasticid  control,  and 
governed  by  a  self-perpetuating  board  of  trustees 
chosen  for  their  fitness  for  the  trust,  and  manned  by 
instructors  of  the  highest  order,  elected  on  no  other 
ground  than  their  qualifications  as  educators.  If  it 
becomes  the  mere  tool  of  a  sect,  it  will  never  rise  to 
the  highest  rank. 

Is  it  not  likely,  also,  that  there  may  be  a  few  Indians 
left  after  the  o-overnment  o-ets  throui;-h  killinu;  the  most 
vicious  ?  It  will  be  only  fair  treatment  of  the  Gospel 
to  test  its  power  on  the  red  men,  who  promise  to 
occupy  a  portion  of  the  great  central  mountain  re- 
gions permanently,  as  American  citizens.  The  results 
already  achieved  justify  no  small  expectation  of  good 
to  those  tribes  in  the  future.  Bishop  Whipple  says, 
that  there  is  not  on  the  face  of  the  earth  a  heathen 
people  that  offer  so  much  encouragement  for  labor  as 
the  Indians.  We  learn  on  high  authorit}^  that  it  costs 
the  government  a  million  dollars  to  kill  one  Indian  ; 
upon  the  other  hand,  the  American  Board  has  ex- 
pended only  a  little  more  than  a  million  dollars  in  In- 
dian missions  during  sixty  years,  laboring  among  a 
hundred  thousand  pagans  in  fifteen  tribes.  AVith  this 
amount  of  money  they  have  employed  a  thousand  la- 
borers in  mission  work  ;  many  of  them  to  promote 
industrial  education.  Between  four  and  five  thou- 
sand Indians  have  been  gathered  into  more  than  fifty 
churches.  It  is  every  way  better  to  spend  a  million  in 
Christian  missions  than  in  muskets. 

The  government  is,  happily,  finding  a  more  excellent 


48  THE  NEW   WEST. 

way  of  dealing  with  these  wild  men.  By  expending 
some  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars  yearly  ^  upon 
Indian  education,  and  by  promoting  industrial  training, 
the  peace  policy  is  bringing  good  frait.  Evidence  is 
accumulating,  which  indicates  that  those  who  have 
roamed  the  great  plains  and  herded  ponies  for  centu- 
ries will  become  herdsmen,  raising  cattle.  Those  who 
have  given  the  most  attention  to  solving  the  problem 
of  Indian  civilization,  have  had  great  success  in  con- 
ducting industrial  education  among  the  Indians,  with 
reference  to  developing  in  their  wards  the  desire  to 
accumulate  cattle.  It  has  been  observed  bv  thoug;ht- 
ful  students  of  history,  that  barbaric  populations  have 
risen  in  the  scale  of  manhood  through  pastoral  life. 

Colorado  College,  located  as  it  is  with  Indian  reserva- 
tions on  every  side,  —  being  nearer  to  seventy-five 
thousand  Indians  than  any  other  Christian  college, — 
would  not  be  true  to  its  position,  without  seeking  to 
bear  an  honorable  part  in  the  elevation  of  these  tribes. 
Unless  it  trains  men  to  promote  industrial  education 
and  to  engage  in  school  work  among  the  Indians,  it 
will  little  deserve  the  support  of  those  who  seek  to 
build  up  in  the  New  West  a  Christian  college  as  a  mis- 
sionary power  in  that  needy  region.  The  wild  men 
who  have  recently  come  upon  reservations  will  be  a, 
long  time  in  learning  the  ways  of  civilized  life,  and 
there  will  be  a  loud  call  for  Christian  teachers.  It  re- 
quires no  argument  to  show  that  instructors  for  the 
Indians  during  the  next  generation,  in  fact,  until  the 
red  race  is  as  well  educated  as  the  white,  can  be  best 
trained  in  the  New  West.  A  Christian  college,  acting 
in  its  preparatory  de[)artment  as  a  Normal  School,  will 
be  likely  to  meet  this  want,  and  to  meet  it  with  a  gO(3d 
class  of  teachers  who  will  enter  the  service  from  philan- 
thropic motives.     It  is  not  probable  that  a  sufficient 

1  $337,379  ill  1877 


THE  NEW  WEST.  4U 

number  of  competent  persons  to  en^u'age  in  this  service 
will  be  trtmsported  from  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi  or 
the  East;  Init  without  them  the  capacity  of  the  Indian 
race  will  never  be  full}^  developed. 

There  are,  moreover,  in  this  connection,  one  or  two 
other  considerations,  which  make  it  very  desirable  to 
establish  an  institution  of  learning  of  the  highest 
o;rade,  in  the  New  West,  at  an  earlv  date.  And  one  is 
this,  —  that  philological  students  in  this  region  will 
have  rare  facilities  for  luiraveling  the  vexed  question 
of  Indian  tongues.  If  the  Geographical  Society  of 
France  thinks  it  worth  the  while  to  send  a  commission 
across  the  Atlantic  to  investio;ate  the  aboriginal  Ian- 
guages  of  America,  it  is  clear  that  a  college,  planted  in 
the  region  where  the  bulk  of  the  Indians  reside,  should 
train  men  who  will  help  solve  the  problem.  During 
the  years  of  wdd  wandering  and  war,  it  has  been  diffi- 
cult to  achieve  much ;  but  now,  for  the  first  time,  the 
Babel  of  tongues  is  fairly  within  the  reach  of  scientific 
research.  Major  Powell,  having  achieved  the  impossi- 
ble in  threading  the  canon  of  the  Colorado  River,  is 
now  attacking  Indian  philology.  Having  given  more 
attention  to  the  subject  than  any  other  person,  he  is 
of  the  opinion  that  among  a  hundred  thousand  Indians 
west  of  the  Rocky  Mountain  range,  there  are  a  hun- 
dred languages  distinct  as  Chinese  and  Arabic,  with 
dialects  as  widely  separated  as  the  languages  of  Ital}- 
and  Spain.  The  vocabularies  which  he  is  gathering 
will  l)e  of  inestimable  value  to  philologists  of  the  future, 
who  will  beyond  doubt  discover  the  origin  of  the  In- 
dians  in  their  language.  It  is  imperative,  however, 
that  the  passing  years  be  used  in  diligent  research, 
since  some  of  the  tribes  are  perishing,  and  the  use  of 
English  in  the  government  schools  will  soon  make  the 
Indian  youth  forgetful  of  their  own  tongue. 

4 


50  THE  NEW  WEST. 

The  difficulty  of  the  languages  in  question  is  illus- 
trated by  the  frequent  mingling  of  Cheyennes  and  Ar- 
rapahoes  for  twenty-five  years,  and  yet  they  cannot 
communicate  with  each  other  except  by  the  sign  lan- 
o'uao-e.  The  Kiowas  and  Comanches.  often  in  contact 
during  fifty  years  past,  find  the  learning  of  each 
other's  lano-uag-e  too  much  of  a  task.  All  honor  then 
to  the  students  in  Colorado  College  who  will  pick  out 
Greek  and  Sanskrit ;  but  it  will  be  discreditable  if  none 
of  them  are  trained  to  interest  themselyes  in  liyino: 
languages  more  difficult,  for  whose  secret  the  pliilo- 
loo'ical  world  is  waiting-. 

The  Indian  names  are  as  full  of  dignity  as  any  in 
the  world.  Melancthon  and  Humboldt  were  names 
once  obscure  to  the  world  of  letters  as  our  friends  in 
the  Dakota  ministry.  —  Toonkanshaechay,  Mazawa- 
kinyanna,  and  David  Grey  Cloud.  But  the  possibili- 
ties of  Indian  character  may  some  day  show  to  the 
world  the  eminent  theoloo'ian  and  the  man  of  science. 
If  this  day  ever  comes,  however,  it  will  be  in  some 
measure  owing  to  an  intellio-ent  interest  taken  in  the 
red  men,  by  any  Christian  college  that  ma}^  be  estab- 
lished in  their  own  neis-hborhood. 

Thus  far,  work  in  Indian  philology  has  been,  in  the 
main,  fragmentary.  There  are  pieces  of  grammars, 
dictionaries,  and  vocabularies.  The  works  relate  to 
single  tongues  or  dialects.  A  comprehensive  work  is 
yet  to  be  done,  in  grouping  the  different  languages 
and  developing  their  conunon  relations.  There  is  an 
open  field  for  honoral)le  service  in  the  systematic  study 
of  aboriginal  philology.  The  Smithsonian  Institute  is 
likely  to  achieve  nuieh  in  tliis  direction  :  but  when  we 
count  up  the  share  of  the  world's  work,  which  right- 
I'ully  belongs  to  a  college  in  the  New  West,  we  must 
reckon  it  as  one  of  the  peculiar  privileges  of  the  loca- 


UEAR   MANiTOU    MINERAL  SPRINGS. 


THE  NEW  WEST.  53 

tion,  to  train  men  to  investigate  Indian  |)liilolo<xy  in 
connection  with  the  work  of  aiding  Indian  civilization. 

It  is,  also,  true  that  the  New  West  oilers  a  rich 
field  for  the  study  of  the  origin  of  the  aboriginal 
population  of  America.  "  There  is  scarcely  a  square 
mile  in  the  six  thousand  examined,"  in  the  San  Juan 
region,  chiefly  in  southwestern  Colorado,  says  Hayden's 
Survey,^  "  that  would  not  furnish  evidence  of  occupa- 
tion by  a  race  totall}^  distinct  from  the  nomadic  sav- 
ages who  hold  it  now,  and  in  every  way  superior  to 
them." 

If  the  cliff  dwellings  of  Colorado,  —  two  story  houses 
perched  upon  the  walls  of  precipitous  canons  eight 
hundred  feet  above  the  roaring  waters,  —  are  not  so 
celebrated  as  the  remains  of  Petra  in  the  East,  they 
are  at  least  more  accessible  to  the  American  public. 
These  remains  of  primeval  races  in  America  are  dis- 
covered throughout  a  large  area  of  country,  —  in  Colo- 
rado, New  Mexico,  Arizona,  Utah,  and  Nevada.  Pot- 
tery, stone  implements,  fragments  of  matting,  tied 
bundles  of  sticks,  —  tied  up  centuries  since,  —  pictures 
cut  upon  walls,  and  other  relics  of  a  departed  people, 
excite  the  interest  of  the  explorer.  The  models  of 
cave  dwellings,  low  land  settlements,  and  cliff-houses 
of  the  San  Juan,  which  have  been  presented  by  the 
United  States  Government  to  the  South  Kensino-ton 
Museum,  London,  have  attracted  attention  in  Europe. 

Twelve  centuries  since,  the  country  southward  from 
Colorado  to  the  Isthmus  was  peopled  by  the  Toltecs. 
They  were,  according  to  Humboldt,  in  the  tenth  cen- 
tury more  civilized  than  the  nations  of  northeastern 
Europe.  But  their  palaces  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
Chichemecs,  who  soon  yielded  to  the  Aztecs,  advancing 
from  the  north.     The  culture   of  these  people  at  the 

^  llL'port  of  W.  II.  Ilulines. 


54  THE  NEW  WEHT. 

time  of  the  Spanish  conquest  is  recorded  in  the  pages 
of  Prescott.  .  It  is  well  known  that  one  of  the  first 
things  the  Romanists  did,  on  arriving  in  the  country, 
was  to  gather  and  burn  the  historical  records  of  the 
natives,  extending  over  eight  centuries.  It  remains, 
therefore,  to  train  enthusiastic  laborers,  who  will  enter 
this  new  field  in  the  ancient  land  of  Toltecs  and  Aztecs, 
and  there  attempt  to  read  in  ruins  the  record  destroj^ed 
by  the  barbaric  priests  of  a  former  age. 

It  will  not  be  difficult  to  kindle  antiquarian  zeal  in 
young  men  whose  lives  will  be  spent  in  the  very  re- 
gions occupied  by  races  which  flourished  and  perished 
before  the  European  stock  was  planted  on  this  con- 
tinent. There  are  Indians  to-day  in  the  New  West, 
who  represent  in  fair  measure  the  semi-civilization, 
superstitions,  and  religious  faith,  of  those  who  possessed 
the  land  before  the  wild  and  savage  tribes  of  recent 
years.  Every  friend  of  American  history  will  take  an 
interest  in  cultivating  the  historical  spirit  in  the  youth 
of  the  far  West,  that  they,  with  material  close  at  hand, 
may  aid  in  solving  problems  of  world-wide  interest. 
Until  we  know  the  true  story  of  the  human  race,  we 
shall  be  at  fault  in  solving  the  most  important  ques- 
tions of  social  science.  The  condition  of  those  races 
whose  history  is  yet  unwritten,  —  or  which  is  written 
only  in  clifis,  caves,  mounds,  and  lake-beds,  —  will, 
therefore,  continue  to  invite  the  attention  of  thought- 
ful students  ;  and  Colorado  College  will  have  no  recog- 
nition of  its  advantage  in  position  if  it  does  not  culti- 
vate a  spirit  of  inquiry  in  what  is  now  called  the  New 
West,  but  which  comprises  in  its  area  the  most  ancient 
relics  of  man  in  America.^ 

It  would,   however,   l)e   foreign   to    the   purpose    of 

1   Col.  W.  W.  Nevin,  cilitor  of  the  riiihidclphiii  yVt.vx,  is  now  pul)lisliiii'i 


THE  XFAV    WEST.  55 

establishing  Christian  learning,  it"  great  relative  im- 
portance were  to  attach  to  the  investigfltion  of  in- 
tricate questions  of  philology  or  perplexing  problems 
of  archfDology,  when  compared  with  the  more  difficult 
study  of  living  men,  who  need  t(j  be  raised  in  the 
scale  of  civilization. 

The  population  of  Mexico  comprises,  at  this  time, 
perhaps,  a  million  descendants  of  the  early  Spanish 
settlers,  four  millions  of  Indians,  and  three  millions 
of  a  mixed  race  of  Spanish  and  Indian  Idood,  —  all  of 
them  speaking  the  Spanish  tongue.  There  are  thirty 
thousand  of  this  race  in  southern  Colorado,  partici- 
pating in  the  political  life  of  the  nation  ;  one  hundred 
thousand  more  in  New  Mexico  voting  in  a  Territory, 
and  wondering  that  they  cannot  vote  as  a  State  ;  and 
a  few  more  in  Arizona.  These  people  are  Romanists, 
many  of  them  of  the  medin?val  Spanish  type.  It  is  not 
so  much  to  the  point  that  they  plow  with  crooked 
sticks,  thresh  their  barley  by  driving  goats  over  it,  and 
practice  the  agricultural  methods  of  a  semi-civilized 
people,  as  that  thej'^  are  unfit,  in  respect  to  their  intel- 
lectual and  moral  training,  to  exercise  the  right  of  suf- 
frage in  America.  It  is  absolutely  necessary  to  plant  a 
Christian  college  in  the  New  West  at  an  early  date, 
that  the  influences  which  always  flow  from  the  higher 
education  may  operate  upon  this  population.  Gin-  love 
for  America  ought  to  |)ronipt  us  to  do  it. 

If  our  Protestant  faith  makes  less  of  forms  than  of 
the  interior  life,  it  is  more  necessary  that  we  emphasize 
the  college  and  a  thoughtful  Christianity,  and  plant 
Christian  schools  among  the  Spanish-speaking  popula- 
tion of  our  own  country,  to  train  the  youth  of  strange 
tongue  for  honorable  service  in  a  Christian  republic. 

cliannin'^  :;ketches  of  pi'i'<oiial   ailvontiire  in  Aztt-c  land.     To  liini  T  am  in- 
dt'btL'il  for  valiiablo  infornialiiui  ik-i-ivtMl  from  nt-w  travel  in  an  oM  fonnti-v 


56  THE  NEW   WE^T. 

The  Church  has  been  praying  for  the  foreign  mission 
field.  One  way  in  which  God  has  answered  these 
prayers  has  been  by  taking  a  large  section  of  the 
foreign  field  and  planting  it  close  to  our  houses,  as  if 
we  could  look  over  our  garden  fences  and  see  China, 
Africa,  Rome,  and  a  race  of  red  men  crying  at  our 
back-doors.  We  little  heed  their  cry,  considering  how 
much  we  prayed  for  them  before  they  became  so  com- 
mon amonu:  us.  It  is  now  twenty-eio-ht  vears  since  a 
large  population  of  Spanish  Catholics  became  a  part  of 
our  nation,  and  the  prevailing  church  polity  of  New 
Eno'land  has  not  vet  so  much  as  looked  at  them.     If 

CD  %y 

Other  denominations  have  had  more  mission  zeal  in 
recent  years,  we  thank  God  for  their  energy,  enter- 
prise, and  Christian  patriotism.  The  work,  however, 
of  trainino*  a  o'ood  class  of  common  school  teachers,  and 
of  establishing  industrial  education,  for  this  part  of  our 
nation,  is  one  which  commends  itself  to  all  friends  of 
humanity  and  of  our  common  country  ;  and  there  is 
room  for  all  to  work  in  whatever  way  good  judgment 
may  indicate. 

liome  in  America  has  nearly  ten  thousand  young 
men  in  colleges  and  seminaries  to-day,  under  seven 
hundred  fift}^  professors,  Jesuits  for  the  most  part ; 
and  half  a  million  pupils  in  schools  of  a  lower  grade. 
This  work  is  orii'anized  under  seven  religjious  orders  of 
men,  and  thirty-six  religious  orders  of  women.^  There 
can,  then,  be  no  question  as  to  the  policy  that  Rome 
will  pursue  in  the  New  West.  Already  the  Jesuits  are 
stretchino-  out    their  hands  after  Protestant  children. 

111  California,  the  Romanists  have  one  sixth  of  the 
population  ;  but  one  quarter  of  the  churches.  In  1870 
a  St.'ite  nornud  school,  State  university,  military  acad- 

^  Vide  Murray's  History  of  Roman  Catholics  in  the  United  States. 


THE  NEW   WEST.  67 

emy,  schools  for  the  higher  ecUication  under  nuiiiage- 
ment  Episcopal,  Presbyterian,  Methodist,  Disciples,  and 
Baptist,  reported  less  pupils  by  a  tliousand  tlian  the 
Catholics  in  1876.  A  hundred  and  four  papal  profess- 
ors give  instruction  in  five  colleges  for  young  men,  and 
two  academies  for  young  women.  All  the  colleges  and 
academies  under  distinctively  Christian  Protestant  in- 
fluences had,  in  1870,  only  three  tenths  as  many  pupils 
as  Romanist  schools  of  the  same  grade  in  1876.  It 
need  not  be  said  that  the  papists  do  not  lack  for  Protes- 
tant patronage. 

The  Jesuits  are  quite  ready  to  educate  the  New 
West.  They  have  a  good  basis  for  operation  in  South- 
ern Colorado,  New  Mexico,  and  Arizona.  We  need  not 
lift  a  hand  to  build  a  Christian  college.  The  gigantic 
machinery  of  the  Society  of  Jesus  is  silently  getting 
under  way  at  this  moment.  Protestant  children  in 
southern  Colorado  are  already  falling  under  the  influ- 
ence of  papal  schools.  The  Romanists  are  doing  for 
more  tlian  all  other  Christian  denominations  for  educa- 
tion in  Colorado.  One  school  has  an  income  of  nearly 
six  thousand  dollars.  In  the  principal  convent  in  the 
State,  five  sevenths  of  the  young  ladies  are  from  Prot- 
estant fomilies. 

An  eminent  Christian  phiUmthropist  of  rare  literary 
skill,  recruiting  in  a  far  country,  once  read  very  inter- 
esting news  from  America.  It  was  in  Rome,  just  be- 
fore the  entrance  of  the  Italian  army.  A  little  news- 
paper of  the  seven-hilled  city, — judiciously  ignoring 
local  politics  when  the  enemy  was  at  the  gate,  —  had 
a  long  leading  article  upon  New  Mexico ;  which  nearly 
filled  the  tiny  sheet.  As  soon  as  freedom  entered  the 
city,  armed  with  the  bayonet,  the  Jesuits  went  out ; 
enough  at  least  to  form  a  large  colony  in  New  Mexico, 
where  they  at  once  established  a  newspaper,  and  began 


68  THE  NEW  WEST. 

a  systematic  attempt  to  get  control  of  the  politics  of 
the  territoiy.  This  is  not  difficult  in  a  locality  where 
three  fourths  of  the  voters  are  Eomanists,  ignorant  and 
superstitious  bej'ond  belief.  And  if  a  tiny  newspaper 
in  Rome  were  now  to  print  the  latest  news,  there 
would  be  a  long  leading  article  on  New  Mexico,  stat- 
ins: that  two  thirds  of  the  leo-islature  are  tools  of  the 
Jesuits,  incorporating  foreigners  with  peculiar  priv- 
ilea:es  for  the  education  of  the  youth  of  America.  The 
signs  of  the  times  show  that  political  power  is  rapidly 
going  West.  New  Mexico  will  soon  be  a  State.  Em- 
inent philanthropists  of  rare  literary  skill  will  do  well 
to  write  long  leading  articles  upon  New  Mexico.  Is  it 
not  possible  to  plant  a  broad  and  truly  Catholic  educa- 
tion in  that  territory,  that  it  may  not  prove  one  more 
ally  for  dishonoring  the  nation,  when  it  becomes  a 
State  ?  Demosthenes  makes  frequent  use  of  the  figure 
of  the  barbarian  boxer,  who  never  knew  enough  to 
look  his  antagonist  in  the  eye  and  smite  him  by  system, 
but  who  was  perpetually  putting  his  hands  down  to 
protect  any  part  of  his  body  where  he  happened  to  be 
hit.  It  is  plain  enough  that  the  future  of  America  is 
hopeless,  unless  the  Christian  men  of  the  nation  will 
ignore  sectarian  interests  and  make  common  cause  for 
the  promotion  of  Christian  education  among  ignorant 
and  degraded  populations  in  America  wherever  they 
are  found. 

We  need  to  learn  of  Rome.  If  Protestant  Christian- 
ity has  not  so  much  ingenuity  as  the  Jesuitical  ;  if  An- 
glo-Saxon perseverance  is  not  equal  to  the  Roman  ;  if 
those  who  love  an  open  Bible  are  not  as  ready  to  put 
money  into  Christian  schools  in  the  New  West  as  our 
papal  neighbors,  —  then  the  Pope  may  have  the  New 
West,  and  he  will  certainly  take  possession  of  a  fiiir 
share  of  it.     Those  who  are  acquainted  witli  the  Jesuit 


THE  NEW   WEST.  59 

policy  need  not  be  told  that  their  leading  aim  is  to  con- 
trol the  future  by  tlic  present  education  of  youth. 

It  ought  not  to  be  said  that  we  are  asleep,  but  when 
we  wake  up  Ave  shall  know  that  we  have  been  asleep. 
We  starve  and  pinch  the  American  Missionary  Associ- 
ation, "'ivino;  little  more  than  two  hundred  thousand 
dollars  a  year  towards  founding  Christian  schools  and 
planting  Christian  pulpits  among  four  million  freedmen 
in  the  pit  of  ignorance  and  degradation  ;  Ave  do  little 
to  speak  of  among  the  Celestial  pagans  on  the  Pacific 
slope ;  and  our  labor  among  the  Indians  is  light.  But 
our  Romish  friends  are  now  said  to  be  spending  six 
hundred  thousand  dollars  a  year  among  the  freedmen, 
among  whom  they  have  one  hundred  and  fifty  thou- 
sand pupils  under  priestly  schools.^  There  are  one 
hundred  thirty-seven  Catholic  missionaries  and  teachers 
among  the  Indians.  We  can  but  commend  their  zeal, 
which  has  been  so  signally  manifested  in  the  mission- 
ary work  of  all  ages;  and  which  illumined  the  dark 
forest  abodes  of  the  red  men  in  the  early  history  of 
America.     Do  we  not  need  to  learn  of  Rome  ? 

Practically  we  do  not  do  much  missionary  work 
among  the  Spanish-speaking  people  of  America.  Mex- 
ico has  not  been  long  open  to  the  Gospel  message. 
Presbyterian  and  Methodist  missions,  and  the  labors  of 
the  American  Board  in  that  country,  are  eminently  suc- 
cessful ;  but  comparatively  little  is  attempted  among 
the  eight  or  nine  millions  of  our  neighboring  State, 
although  tliousands  are  throwing  off  the  papal  3'oke, 
and  the  people  are  enger  for  the  Word  of  Life.  New 
Mexico  is  three  times  as  laro-e  as  New  Eno-land.  It  is 
a  portion  of  our  domestic  heritage.  But  we  have 
hardly  intimated  to  her  people  —  a  fraction  of  whom 
are   sun-worshippers,  as  well  as  good  Catholics  —  that 

1  James  Powell,  D.  D. 


60  THE  NEW  WEST. 

they  are  any  part  of  a  Protestant  or  Christian  nation. 
The  Presbyterians  and  Methodists  have  opened  school 
and  mission  work  at  two  or  three  points  in  New 
Mexico,  and  an  Episcopal  bishop  is  now  appointed  to 
visit  that  country  and  Arizona.  Other  denominations 
ignore  the  work  altogether.  Is  it  not  possible  to  make 
definite  plans  for  the  systematic  training  of  competent 
common  school  teachers,  and  industrial  teachers,  for 
the  express  work  of  enlightening  this  dark  corner  of 
America  ? 

We  shall  do  well  to  learn  of  Rome,  which  proceeds 
calmly  in  carrying  forward  plans,  century  after  cen- 
tury, for  the  conversion  of  the  nations.  We  may  wisely 
imitate  them  in  their  zeal  for  education,  at  least  so  far 
as  to  furnish  a  Christian  college  for  Protestant  children 
in  Colorado.  Unless  our  Christianity  has  faitli  to  pre- 
pare the  way  for  the  millennium  in  Spanish  America, 
whose  faith  will  do  it  ?  Shall  New  England  Christians 
wait  till  Old  England,  or  even  Micronesia,  sends  mis- 
sionaries to  New  Mexico  ?  Is  it  not  possible  to  train  a 
iQ\N  teachers  and  preachers  in  a  Christian  college  near 
the  work  to  be  done  ?  It  will  be  more  easy  to  secure 
men  than  from  the  East.  If  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  de- 
scends with  tonfcues  of  fire  on  a  Christian  colieo'e  in  the 
New  West,  it  is  likely  that  one  of  the  tongues  will  be 
Spanish. 

There  are,  among  the  Spanish-speaking  people  of 
America,  persons  of  great  intelligence,  culture,  and  lib- 
erality ot  spirit.  They  are  Catholics,  but  they  desire 
a  reformation.  They  welcome  Protestant  ideas  and 
any  instrumentality  that  will  elevate  their  people. 
Tliere  is  no  doubt  that  tlic  school  work  which  the  au- 
thorities of  Colorado  College  are  now  organizing  for 
the  S])anish-speaking  population  will  have  a  good  re- 
ception. It  certainly  will,  if  it  be  carried  out  with 
practical  wisdom  and  the  spirit  of  Christ,  without  con- 


THE  NEW  WEST.  61 

troversy.  It  is  absolutely  certain  that  if,  within  a 
few  years,  we  can  find  a  few  Spanish-speaking  youth, 
who  will  obtain  a  Christian  education  and  tlien  give 
themselves  to  mission  work,  we  can  do  good  work  for 
Mexico  ;  and  between  now  and  the  dawn  of  perfect 
light  in  that  country,  the  Catholic  colleges  will  become 
seminaries  for  the  stud\'  of  the  Bible.  Fourteen  out  of 
nineteen  colleges  now  at  Oxford  were  founded  by  Pa- 
pists. A  religious  refonnation  in  Mexico  can  be  best 
aided  through  Spanish-speaking  young  men  from  the 
United  States,  trained  in  a  Christian  college  in  their 
own  neighborhood,  founded  by  Christian  men  deter- 
mined to  carry  the  world  for  Christ  at  the  earliest  pos- 
sible moment.  These  young  men  have  it  in  them  to 
reform  their  country.  There  are  already  native  help- 
ers of  apostolic  zeal  in  Mexico.  But  some  of  them  at 
least  should  be  educated  in  a  Christian  college. 

The  Denver  and  Rio  Grande  Eailway,  alread}'  a  de- 
cided success  as  a  business  enterprise,  now  stretching 
far  south,  is  chartered  to  the  southern  line  of  New 
Mexico  and  is  aiming  for  the  city  of  Mexico,  which  can 
be  reached  by  easy  grades  ;  a  line  sure  of  large  profits 
b}'^  an  immense  business.  This  railway  is  now  awaken- 
ing the  drowsy  Spanish  American  people ;  and  Chris- 
tian men  of  enterprise  ought  to  enter,  at  this  very 
moment,  upon  the  woi-k  of  throwing  into  these  Mex- 
ican villages  positive  religious  influences,  which  will  at 
least  seize  upon  the  most  vigorous  young  men  amono- 
them,  and  prepare  them  for  citizenship  in  a  Christian 
country. 

If  we  send  the  Gospel  to  Old  Spain,  let  us  send  it  to 
New  Spain  within  our  own  borders.  That  the  New  is 
not  unlike  the  Old  is  easy  to  believe.  We  have  medi- 
aeval Spanish  Catholicism  voting  in  Southern  Colorado 
In  the  •'•'Atlantic  Monthly"  for  June,  1877,  ''' H.  H." 
gives  some  account  of  these  dwellers  in  adobe  houses  ;  — 


G2  THE  ^^EW    WEST. 

"■  There  still  exists  among  the  Roman  Catholic  ^Mexicans  of 
southern  Colorado  an  order  like  the  old  order  of  the  Flag:el- 
lants.  Every  spring,  in  Easter  week,  several  of  the  yoimg 
men  belonging  to  this  order  inflict  on  themselves  dreadful 
tortures  in  public.  The  congregations  to  which  they  belong 
gather  about  them,  follow  them  from  house  to  house,  and  spot 
to  spot,  and  kneel  down  around  them,  singing  and  j)i"aying 
and  continually  exciting  their  frenzy  to  a  higlier  pitch. 
Sometimes  they  have  also  drums  and  fifes,  adding  a  melan- 
choly and  discordant  music  to  the  harrowing  spectacle.  The 
priests  ostensibl}-  disapprove  of  these  proceedings,  and  never 
appear  in  public  with  the  Penitentes.  But  the  impi-ession 
among  outsiders  is  very  strong  that  they  do  secreth'  counten- 
ance and  stimulate  them,  thinking  that  the  excitement  tends 
to  strengthen  the  hold  of  the  church  on  the  people's  minds. 
It  is  incredible  that  such  superstitions  can  still  be  alive  and  in 
force  in  our  country.  Some  of  the  tortures  these  poor  crea- 
tures undergo  are  almost  too  terrible  to  tell.  One  of  the  most 
common  is  to  make  in  the  small  of  the  back  an  arrow-shaped 
incision  ;  then  fastening  into  each  end  of  a  long  scarf  tlie 
j^rickly  cactus  stems,  they  scourge  themselves  with  them, 
throwing  the  scarf  ends  first  over  one  shoulder,  then  over  the 
other,  each  time  hitting  the  bleeding  wound.  The  leaves  of 
the  yucca  or  "  soap  weed  "  are  pounded  into  a  pulp  and  made 
into  a  sort  of  sponge,  acrid  and  inflaming  :  a  man  carries  this 
along  in  a  pail  of  water,  and  every  now  and  then  wets  the 
wound  with  it  to  increase  the  pain  and  the  flowing  of  the  blood. 
Almost  naked,  lashing  themselves  in  this  way,  they  rnn  wildly 
over  the  ])lains.  Their  blood  drops  on  the  ground  at  every 
step.  A  fanatical  ecstasy  possesses  them ;  they  seem  to  fee] 
no  fatigue ;  for  three  days  and  two  nights  they  have  been 
known  to  keep  it  up  without  rest. 

"  Others  bind  the  thick  lobes  of  the  prickly  pear  under 
their  arms  and  on  the  soles  of  their  feet,  and  run  for  miles, 
SAvinging  their  arms  and  stamping  their  feet  violently  on  the 
ground.  To  one  who  knows  what  sutYering  there  is  from 
even  one  of  these  tiny  little  spines  imbedded  in  the  flesh,  it 
seems  past  belief  that  a  man  could  voluntarily  eiidui-e  such 
pain. 


THE  NEW  WEST.  63 

"  Others  lie  on  the  thresholds  of  the  churches,  and  every 
person  who  enters  the  church  is  asked  to  step  with  his  full 
weight  on  their  bodies.  Others  carry  about  heavy  wooden 
ciosses  (eight  or  ten  feet  long),  so  heavy  that  a  man  can 
hardly  lift  them.  Some  crawl  on  their  hands  and  knees, 
dragging  the  cross.  Crowds  of  women  accompany  them, 
singing  and  shouting.  When  the  penitent  throws  himself 
on  the  ground,  they  lay  the  cross  on  his  breast  and  fall  on 
their  knees  around  him  and  pray  ;  then  they  rise  up,  place 
the  cross  on  his  back  again,  and  take  up  the  dreadful  journey. 
Now  and  then  the  band  wdll  enter  a  house  and  eat  a  little 
food,  which  in  all  good  Catholic  houses  is  kept  ready  for 
them.  After  a  short  rest  the  leader  gives  a  signal,  and  they 
Bet  out  again. 

"  Last  spring,  in  the  eighteen  hundred  and  seventy-sixth 
year  of  our  merciful  Lord,  four  of  these  young  men  died  from 
the  effects  of  their  tortures.  One  of  them,  after  running  for 
three  days  under  the  cactus  scourge,  lay  all  Easter  night 
naked  ui)on  the  threshold  of  a  church.  Easter  morning  he 
Avas  found  there  dead." 

There  are  some  who  would  pity  these  people  if  they 
lived  on  some  distant  continent ;  but  as  it  is,  they 
think  little  more  about  them  than  they  clo  about  the 
pagan  temples  the  Chinese  are  erecting  in  America,  or 
the  ig;norance  of  millions  of  blacks  deaf  with  the  crack 
of  the  slave  whip.  For  the  most  part,  however,  we 
believe,  that,  where  the  facts  are  known,  men  have 
pity  upon  their  own  neighbors.  That  a  pure  Gospel 
should  be  preached  in  Mexico,  and  in  New  Mexico,  is  a 
duty  near  at  hand.  Li  fultilling  this  duty,  it  is  a  prac- 
tical step  to  aid  in  founding  Colorado  College  ;  which 
is  not  far  distant ;  and  which  is  already  making  defi- 
nite plans  to  enter  on  this  missionary  field  by  such  in- 
strumentalities as  fall  within  its  proper  province,  — 
preparing  the  way  for  teachers  and  preachers,  both 
American  and  of  Spanish  descent,  and  training  the 
men  for  their  work. 


64  THE  NEW  WEST. 

Colorado  College  is  not  only  upon  the  very  verge  of 
the  frontier,  in  the  first  battle  line  of  the  Home  Mis- 
sionary Society,  but  there  is  iio  college  in  the  country 
so  near  foreign  missionary  service  as  this,  with  thirty 
thousand  neighbors  in  the  same  State,  speaking  a  for- 
eign tongue,  practicing  the  rites  of  a  strange  religion, 
with  lives  little  guided  by  the  principles  of  the  Gos- 
pel ;  and  in  territory  a  little  flirther  south  —  made  near 
by  business  connections,  —  a  hundred  thousand  more, 
clamoring  to  become  a  State.  Let  us  put  money  into 
foreign  missions,  but  not  forget  this  foreign  fragment 
of  our  own  Republic. 

There  are  several  men  now  studvino;  for  the  Chris- 
tian  ministry,  in  Colorado  College.  Is  there  not  money 
enough  to  put  a  strong  home  missionary  force  into 
these  papal  sections  ?  Are  the  sons  of  the  Pilgrims 
lacking  in  enterprise  ?  Providence  opens  the  door ; 
do  we  fumble  in  our  pockets,  think  we  cannot  afford  to 
pay  the  fee,  or  send  the  money  somewhere  else,  and 
keep  out  of  the  best  missionary  work  in  the  country 
at  the  very  moment  in  which  our  labor  will  tell  the- 
most  for  our  Master  ? 

"  Civilization  must  go  as  yeast,  not  as  bread,"  says 
an  eminent  preacher.  Plant  a  Christian  college  in  the 
New  West,  and  it  will  raise  new  life  in  an  eflfete  civili- 
zation, where  men  put  their  teeth  to  a  stone  in  place 
of  the  bread  of  life.  There  is  just  as  good  prospect 
that  the  Spanish-speaking  people  of  America  will  be 
prepared  for  Christian  citizenship  as  that  the  promises 
of  God  will  be  fulfilled.  We  shall  not  always  hear  men 
asserting  that  Mexico  has  had  fifty-six  revolutions  in 
fifty-six  years,^  and  that  seven  eighths  of  her  population 
cannot  read.     If  there  is  in  America  a  Christian  republic^ 

1    Rev.  Aitliiir  IMitclu'll,  in  ,V.  ,S'.  World. 


THE  NEW  WEST.  65 

it  surely  ought  to  send  the  Bil)le  to  Mexico,  and  there 
erect  tlie  Christian  school.  The  essential  instrument 
is  the  one  which  God  has  always  used,  —  Christian  edu- 
cation to  kindle  the  holy  fire.  Has  the  fire  gone  out 
in  New  England  along  the  Atlantic  slope,  and  in  the 
valley  of  the  Mississippi  ?  We  send  men  to  every  part 
of  the  world,  and  they  prove  great  powers  for  the  re- 
generation of  nations.  Cannot  all  the  Christian  force 
in  America  redeem  America?  May  we  not  at  the 
least  establish  a  small  Christian  college,  which  will 
grow  into  a  great  power  for  good  at  the  front  of  our 
home  mission  field,  and  in  the  immediate  neighborhood 
of  foreign  populations  needing  the  Gospel  ? 

In  every  age  of  history  God  has  used  young  men  in 
their  school  days  for  achieving  great  results.  The  early 
prophets  received  instruction.  Paul  was  a  learned  man  ; 
the  church  Fathers  were  good  students.  The  enthusi- 
asm of  their  youth  was  tempered  by  careful  studies,  and 
they  became  men  fit  to  sit  on  thrones  in  the  kingdom 
of  our  Lord.  D'Aubigne  affirms  that  the  German  Refor- 
mation was  born  in  the  universities.  The  Enghsh  Ref- 
ormation was  cradled  in  colleges,  and  nurtured  by 
scholarly  men.  Ranke's  "  History  of  the  Popes  "  states 
that  Austria  Avas  at  one  time  nearly  Pi'otestant,  but  the 
Jesuits  obtained  a  hold  in  the  universities  and  swung 
back  the  nation  to  papal  inlluence.  The  most  vital 
movements  of  the  modern  world  have  begun  in  Chris- 
tian seminaries. 

John  Wesley  —  who  was  God's  instrument  to  set 
strongminded  and  consecrated  shoemakers  and  black- 
smiths to  preaching  the  Gospel  to  the  poor  —  had  also 
the  discretion  to  remain  ten  years  in  his  Oxford  fellow- 
ship, that  he   might  fire  the  young  men  with  his  own 


66  THE  NEW    WEST. 

spirit.  "  Is  it  not,"  he  asked,  '•  a  more  extensive  bene- 
fit to  sweeten  the  fountain  than  to  purify  a  particular 
stream?"  The  American  Home  Missionarj^  Society 
began  in  the  conversations  of  Anclover  students.  May 
not  the  students  of  some  Western  college,  obscure  as 
Andover  was  once,  inaugurate  new  enterprises  for  the 
Master  ?  The  American  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  was 
begun  by  the  students  of  a  very  small  college,  praying 
under  a  haystack.  May  not  the  students  of  a  feeble 
college,  who  pray  nightly  under  the  shadow  of  the 
Colorado  mountains,  achieve  something  honorable  ? 
Ever}''  Christian  college  ought  to  become  a  fountain  of 
holy  fire,  illuminating  the  third  part  of  a  continent ; 
and  it  will,  if  it  is  sufficiently  endowed  with  the  money 
and  the  prayers  of  God's  people,  and  the  Power  from 
on  High.  George  Fox  said  that  every  true  Quaker 
ought  to  shake  the  country  for  ten  miles  around  him. 
If  Colorado  College  is  true  to  its  position  and  to  its 
consecration,  is  it  too  much  to  hope  that  it  will  make 
itself  felt,  not  only  in  Colorado,  but  in  the  region  south 
and  southwest  of  it,  and  that  it  will  aid  in  j^reparing 
the  way  of  our  Lord  ? 

Agesilaus  the  Great,  being  asked  how  far  the  bounds 
of  Sparta  extended,  shook  his  spear,  and  answered, 
"  As  far  as  this  will  reach."  The  true  heritage  of 
Christian  education  depends  on  how  fiir  its  spear  can 
penetrate.  Judson,  the  missionary,  believed  in  a  bold, 
aggressive  policy,  to  arouse  and  keep  alive  the  benev- 
olent spirit  of  the  churches.  A  bold,  aggressive  policy 
has  money  in  it.  Practically  wise  and  energetic  busi- 
ness men  favor  wise  and  energetic  efforts  to  plant  the 
Gospel  and  Christian  education  in  new  fields. 

The  Christian  people  of  Colorado  entertaiu  a  strong 
conviction  that  trained  bands  must  be  sent  into  every 


THE  NEW    WEST.  67 

part  of  the  New  West,  in  the  eurly  development  of 
the  regions  beyond.  Without  extended  missionary 
journeys,  the  highway  will  not  be  opened  for  the  King 
of  Glory  to  come  in.  But  the  country  cannot  be  pen- 
etrated everywhere  by  preaching  tours,  unless  men 
adapted  to  the  work  are  trained  upon  the  lield.  This 
is  evident  from  the  fact  that  there  are  so  many  re- 
gions that  have  not  been  explored  by  men  from  the 
East.  The  plan  of  the  American  Board  is  to  establish 
a  few  churches,  and  then  a  training  school  as  a  centre 
of  light  and  influence.  This  has  been  substantially  the 
course  on  the  home  missionary  field.  No  other  plan 
will  do  the  work ;  first  a  handful  of  churches,  then  the 
Christian  College.  This  course  is  absolutely  essential 
in  the  New  AVest.  Professor  Stowe  compares  the 
Christian  College  to  an  engine,  so  essential  is  it  to 
move  the  machinery  of  a  Christian  civilization.  Paddle 
wheels  are  of  no  use  without  the  engine.  Civilization 
will  stand  still  without  the  engine.^  And  the  engine 
to  do  the  work  of  the  New  West  will  do  no  good  if 
set  up  on  the  banks  of  the  Connecticut. 

There  are  great  numbers  of  villages  in  the  New  West 
where  there  is  a  liquor  saloon  for  every  one  or  two  hun- 
dred inhabitants,  and  one  or  more  dance-houses  to 
every  five  hundred,  and  preaching  of  the  Gospel  at  very 
rare  intervals.  Apply  this  rule  to  any  eastern  village, 
and  the  result  will  be  easily  forecast.  The  barbarians 
who  destroyed  Rome  were  multiplying  and  growing 
strong  in  the  North  of  Europe,  during  the  same  centu- 
ries in  which  the  Romans  were  rolling  up  wealth  on  the 
shores  of  the  Tiber.  We  can,  if  we  will,  rear  ignorant 
and  powerful  States  in  our  wild  Western  country ;  and 
some  day  they  will  destroy  the  nation. 

This  business  of  planting  Christian  churches  and  the 


G8 


THE  NEW    WEST. 


Cliristian  College  must  be  clone  at  once  ;  they  cannot 
wait  one  for  the  other,  "  any  more  than  one  leg  can 
be  waiting  for  the  other,  when  a  man  is  on  a  rapid 
march."  ^ 

1   Professor  Stowe,  College  Society  Address. 


There  are  so  many  schools  in  the  West  bearing  the 
time  honored  name  of  college  or  university,  that 
friends  of  education  in  the  East,  who  have  little  leisure 
to  become  personally  acquainted  Avith  the  needs  and 
merits  of  each  one  in  detail,  have  found  it  advanta- 
geous to  establish  a  College  Society  through  which  to 
assist  only  those  w^iich  have  a  w^ell-grounded  claim  to 
exist  and  which  prove  worthy  of  aid.  The  greater 
part  of  the  endowments  which  enrich  a  college  in  the 
process  of  years  are  given  directly  into  the  hands  of 
the  trustees.  But  in  the  beo'inning-  of  the  life  of  a  col- 
lege  it  will  certainly  stand  stronger  before  the  public, 
if  it  has  the  patronage  of  a  Society  which  has  already 
established  several  Western  colleges  of  honorable  rep- 
utation. 

The  American  College  and  Education  Society  has 
adopted  Colorado  College  as  one  of  its  beneficiaries, 
and  it  needs  the  gifts  of  Christian  men  and  women  for 
its  up-building.  This  Society  has  a  noble  history,  and 
merits  the  confidence  of  the  Christian  public.     It  has 


70  THE  NEW  WEST. 

been  alread}^  honored  by  the  chiirche.*,  in  being  made 
the  channel  through  which  the}^  have  given  nearly  a 
million  and  one  fourth  for  colles:es,  and  half  a  million 
dollars  more  than  that  to  aid  young  men.  The  amount 
invested  is  small,  the  result  large,  —  aid  rendered  seven- 
teen Christian  colleges  and  seminaries,  and  between 
six  and  seven  thousand  young  men  assisted  in  their 
preparation  for  the  ministry. 

"  Each  institution  which  applies  for  aid  is  subjected  to 
rigid  examination  as  to  its  origin  and  location,  the  princi- 
ples upon  which  it  Avas  founded,  its  means  of  self-support, 
its  relations  to  similar  institutions,  and  its  prospective 
usefulness."  ^  The  refusal  of  the  Society,  based  on  good 
reasons,  to  indorse  a  Western  college,  prevents  the 
Christian  public  from  being  imposed  upon.  It  aids  no 
college  except  under  conditions  which  careful  business 
men,  acting  with  extreme  caution,  consider  to  be  wise. 
As  a  rule  no  Eastern  money  goes  into  buildings.  The 
College  must  be  begun  without  the  aid  of  the  Society  ; 
it  must  territorially  occupy  a  sufficient  field,  without 
near  neighbors.  The  College  is  pledged  to  maintain  for- 
ever a  Christian  character  and  influence  in  considera- 
tion of  the  aid  rendered.  Aid  is  continued  long  enough 
to  put  the  College  into  such  a  condition  as  will  insure 
an  honorable  future,  if  the  manairement  of  its  affairs 
continues  to  commend  it  to  the  Christian  public.  The 
colleges  under  the  care  of  the  Society,  had,  in  1872, 
increased  their  net  resources  from  three  hundred  thou- 
sand to  three  millions  of  dollars.  The  plans  of  the 
Society  "  admit  of  neither  waste  nor  failure.  It  takes 
up  no  doubtful  institution.  It  leaves  none  half  able  to 
take  care  of  itself  Its  cooperation  is  pledge  of  char- 
acter   and    success."  ^     No  worthy  institution    is    pre- 

^  Fifth  Report,  College  Society. 
"  Thirtieth  Report,  College  Societij. 


THE  NEW  WEST.  71 

maturely  abandoned,  any  more  than  wise  men  would 
leave  an  arch  without  a  key-stone,  or  <a  temple  without 
a  roof.^ 

We  submit  that  this  work  is  not  second  in  impor- 
tance to  any  in  the  country,  and  tliat  it  ought  to  re- 
ceive the  hearty  and  systematic  support  of  all  our 
churches  and  private  Christians.  And  we  are  confident 
tliat,  so  for  as  the  facts  are  known,  Christian  men  will 
delight  to  use  this  Society  in  doing  good.  Many  have 
not  given  much  thought  to  it,  and,  therefore,  little 
money  to  it.  If  they  once  weigh  the  woi-k,  they  will 
be  glad  to  give  liberally  through  this  channel.  The 
establishment  of  any  one  college,  however  important,  is 
not  any  considerable  part  of  its  work.  It  is  making  a 
chain  of  them  in  the  West.  Without  the  sound  of  ham- 
mer to  attract  the  attention  of  the  world,  it  is  silently 
building  temples  of  Christian  learning,  whose  glory  will 
appear  in  after  ages.  This  Society  can,  says  Dr.  Hop- 
kins,^ "  appeal  only  to  thoughtful  men  of  large  views, 
and  willing  to  wait.  It  is  the  glory  and  hope  of  the 
country  that  there  are  in  it  so  many  such  men  who 
can  be  thus  appealed  to.  In  my  judgment,  the  coun- 
try has  no  greater  benefactors  than  those  who  have 
thus  aided  in  erecting  these  fortresses  of  Christianity 
and  civilization,  so  that  the  two  may  march  on  together 
and  take  secure  possession  of  the  land.  I  know  of  no 
better  use  of  money  than  to  secure  instruction  for  all 
time  in  some  great  branch  of  study  that  shall  enter  in 
as  a  part  of  the  best  system  that  can  be  devised  for 
traininii:  men.  Nothino;  on  earth  is  so  high  as  man, 
and  the  grandest  work  we  can  do,  and  the  best  for  the 
country,  is  to  lift  him  up  to  a  higher  manhood." 

^  Sixteenth  Report,  College  Society. 
^  College  Societij  Address. 


72  THE  NEW  WEST. 

Colorado  College  has  had  the  fortune  not  uncom- 
monly incident  to  the  beginning  of  important  enter- 
prises. The  school  was  opened  in  1874,  under  a  very 
enthusiastic,  hard-working  financial  agent,  and  first  one 
excellent  teacher,  then  another.  It  was  then  suspended; 
and  it  lived  only  in  the  prayers  and  hopes  of  a  handful 
of  Christian  people.  This  was  the  first  endowment,  the 
prayers  of  God's  people.  By  the  timely  gifts  of  a  few 
men  in  Massachusetts,  who  were  also  praying  for  the 
coming  of  the  divine  kingdom,  new  life  was  put  into 
the  work. 

The  Colorado  Springs  Company  has  made  a  royal 
gift  of  more  than  fifty  acres  of  their  best  land  to  the 
College,  and  they  reserve  forty  acres  more  to  be  given 
when  a  certain  endowment  is  secured.  The  land  is  in 
part  for  the  campus,  but  enough  may  be  sold  for  the 
endowment  to  net  from  twenty  to  twenty-five  thousand 
dollars.  What  has  been  already  done  by  the  Colorado 
Springs  people,  in  the  land  and  in  a  building  subscrip- 
tion, falls  little  short  of  fifty  thousand  dollars.  The 
townspeople  —  with  one  generous  friend  in  Chicago  — 
are  erecting  a  stone  structure,  which  when  finished 
will  be  one  of  the  most  comely  and  convenient  college 
buildings  in  the  country.  It  will  be  of  a  pink,  volcanic 
limestone,  with  white  trimmings.  The  central  portion 
was  begun  upon  tlie  Foiu'th  of  July,  1877,  and  it  will 
be  completed  before  the  Fall  Term  of  1878.  The  re- 
mainder of  the  building  will  be  erected  as  soon  as  the 
wants  of  the  pupils  require  it.  The  most  careful  and 
most  enterprising  business  men  in  the  State  are  active 
members  of  the  board  of  trustees.  The  grade  of  stud- 
ies is  equal  to  that  in  the  best  eastern  colleges.  The 
professors  engaged  in  teaching,  or  preparing  to  give 
instruction  in  some  specialty,  are  eminent  for  scholar- 
ship, ns  well  as  men  of  earnest  Christian  life.     Young 


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THE  NEW  WEST.  75 

men  and  women  from  all  the  region  are  entering  the 
classes,  and  the  needs  are  pressing  for  additional  facil- 
ities for  giving  instruction. 

There  are  twenty-five  thousand  children  of  school  age 
in  Colorado,  and  they  need  a  Christian  college.^  In  that 
part  of  the  State  south  of  the  Divide  —  an  upland  ridge 
that  makes  out  eastward  from  the  mountains  a  little 
south  of  Denver,  —  a  population,  probably  numbering 
seventy  thousand,  has  no  public  school  of  high  school 
grade,  according  to  the  Eastern  standard.  They  need 
the  advantages  offered  by  the  Preparatory  Department 
of  Colorado  College.  The  public  schools  are,  however, 
rapidly  improving,  and  several  schools  that  now  rise 
little  above  grammar  grade,  will  soon  be  in  condition  to 
fit  jiupils  for  college.  The  Episcopalians  have  a  board- 
ing-school of  high  school  grade  for  boys  at  Golden,  and 
ibr  girls  at  Denver.  The  State  University  has  recently 
opened  with  a  Normal  Department,  at  Boulder,  a  hun- 
dred miles  north  of  Colorado  College.  The  Christian 
people  of  the  State  will  cooperate  with  this  work  in 
in  every  way  possible.  It  is  clearly  for  the  interest  of 
the  State  that  provision  should  be  made  for  the  higher 
education  of  youth.  It  is,  however,  for  the  interest  of 
the  pupils,  —  and  througli  them  of  the  State,  —  that 
they  be  trained  under  a  distinctively  Christian  influence. 
It  is,  moreover,  believed  that  a  self-perpetuating  board 
of  trustees,  selected  with  sole  reference  to  their  fitness 
for  their  trust,  is  more  likely  to  command  confidence, 
and  to  manage  college  aftairs  wisely,  than  men  chosen 
by  popular  vote,  as  the  State  constitution  of  Colorado 
indicates  that  the  regents  of  her  University  shall  be 
elected.  There  is  a  strong  feeling  in  favor  of  uniting 
upon  one  college.  The  policy  of  the  American  Col- 
lege and  Education  Society  is  recognized  as  broad  and 

^  There  are  as  many  more  in  New  Mexico,  anil  almost  as  many  more  in 
Utah  ;  and  thev  need  the  influences  tliat  will  flow  out  from  a  Christian  colle«ie. 


76  THE  NEW  WEST. 

liberal,  and  its  colleges  as  unsectarian  as  any  in  the 
country.  This  Society  takes  a  pledge  of  the  trustees 
that  the  college  shall  never  come  under  political  or  ec- 
clesiastical control.  Tlie  policy  of  the  Society  is  shown 
by  a  brief  extract  from  a  valuable  paper  published  by 
the  honored  Secretar}^  of  the  Societ}'  in  the  ''  Congre- 
gationalist,"  February  6,  1878  :  — 

''  The  American  Education  Society,  organized  sixty- 
two  years  ago,  and  which  has  done  a  larger  work  in 
this  department,  probably,  than  any  other  among  us, 
has  been  unsectarian  from  the  beginning  unto  this  day. 
Though  its  funds  and  its  students  are  drawn  chiefly 
from  Cono:reo:ational  sources,  there  has  never  been  a 
year  since  its  origin  that  it  has  not  had  upon  it-  lists 
young  men  of  other  denominations  —  Baptists,  Metho- 
dists, Presbyterians,  German  Reformed,  Lutherans,  etc. 
A  young  man  was  graduated  from  Amherst  College 
last  summer,  the  son  of  a  Methodist  minister,  himself 
preparing  to  be  a  Methodist  minister,  and  known  to  be 
so,  who  was  helped  through  his  whole  college  course 
by  this  society.  Nor  was  this  a  strange  and  isolated 
case.  There  are  several  hundreds  of  similar  cases. 
Rev.  Baron  Stow,  D.  D.,  one  of  the  more  prominent 
Baptist  ministers  of  the  country,  now  deceased,  was 
aided  through  his  education  by  this  Society.  Heidel- 
berg College,  Ohio,  is  a  German  Reformed  institution. 
But  because  the  religious  body  to  which  it  belonged 
was  not  rich,  the  American  Education  Society,  between 
thirty  Jind  forty  years  ago,  took  it  upon  its  list,  and  has 
continued  to  this  day  to  help  young  men  there  needing 
assistance  in  their  studies  for  the  ministry.  This  was  a 
purely  charitable.  Christian  work,  from  which  no  finan- 
cial return,  or  denominational  return,  has  ever  been 
expected.  In  other  words,  the  Society  has  been  con- 
cerned in  raising  up  thoroughly  educated  ministers, 
without  stopping  anxiously   to  inquire  whether  thej 


THE  NEW   WEST.  77 

should  turn  out  Congregationul  ministers,  or  should  be 
of  some  other  religious  order." 

The  same  catholicity  of  spirit  has  manifested  itself 
in  the  collegiate  department  of  the  Society.  Presljy- 
terian  and  Lutheran  colleges  have  been  aided  ;  if 
others  have  not  shared  its  bounty,  it  has  been  because 
they  have  not  sought  it.  And,  in  accoi-d  with  this 
breadth  of  Christian  benevolence,  the  colleges  built  up 
by  this  Society  have  made  it  a  point  to  place  the  rep- 
resentatives of  different  denominations  upon  boards  of 
trust  and  in  chairs  of  instruction.  It  is  a  part  of  their 
working  theor}^  that  a  lil)eral  policy  is  more  likely  to 
win  the  respect  of  thoughtful  men,  and  result  in  build- 
ing up  colleges  which  will  meet  the  wants  of  the  pub- 
lic, than  if  a  narrow  sectarian  course  is  pursued.  If 
these  colleges  are  not  imsectarian,  it  is  certain  that  in 
them  the  evils  of  sectaiianism  are  reduced  to  a  mini- 
mum. Colorado  College,  in  its  management,  com- 
mends itself  to  leading  Christian  men  of  different  de- 
nominations in  the  State,  and  it  will  receive  their 
hearty  support.  Its  aim  is  to  meet  the  wants  of  all 
Christian  families,  and  to  merit  the  patronage  of  the 
more  than  six  score  Christian  churches,  for  the  higher 
education  of  their  children. 


V. 

It  cannot  be  safely  affirmed  that  it  is  too  early  to 
plant  a  college  in  the  New  West,  since  we  are  never 
weary  of  boasting  that  Harvard  College  was  begun 
when  there  were  only  from  twenty  to  thirty  houses  in 
Boston.  We  glory  in  the  men  who  said  that  they  could 
"  not  subsist  without  a  college,"  when  they  had  not 
more  than  twenty-five  beginnings  of  towns  in  Massa- 
chusetts. We  cannot  "  subsist  without  a  college  " 
in  Colorado.  Thirty-nine  years  after  Harvard  was 
founded,  the  population  of  all  New  England  was  only 
thirty-nine  per  cent,  of  the  present  population  of  Col- 
orado ;  and  the  population  of  all  the  colonies  was  only 
twenty-six  per  cent,  of  the  population  of  the  New 
West.  If  our  fathers  could  ''  not  subsist  without  a  col- 
lege," Colorado  has  nearly  three  times  the  need  Massa- 
chusetts had  of  Harvard  forty  years  after  it  was 
founded  ;  and  the  New  West  to-day  has  four  times  as 
much  need  of  a  Christian  college  as  all  the  colonies 
had  when  Harvard  was  two  score  years  old.  The  only 
way  for  Colorado  and  the  New  AVest  to  found  a  Chris- 
tian college  is  to  do  as  the  men  of  Massachusetts  did 
for  Harvard.     They  went  to  England  to  beg  money, 


THE  NEW  WEST.  79 

and  the  Englishmen  gave  it.  To-(hiy  the  New  West  is 
a  beggar  at  the  doors  of  those  who  are  now  reaping 
the  benefit  of  Enghsh  benefactions  two  hundred  years 
ago.  Let  gratitude  for  the  past  take  substantial  shape 
at  this  hour  in  planting  Coloiado  College. 

Harvard  College  was  established  only  eighteen  years 
after  the  landing  at  Plymouth,  and  six  years  after  the 
founding  of  Boston.  Colorado  has  been  settled  more 
than  eighteen  years.  Massachusetts  had  a  college  be- 
fore it  had  a  grammar  school.  It  was  eleven  years 
after  the  college  began  that  provision  was  made  for 
grammar  schools  to  fit  pupils  for  the  university. 

Yale  College  was  founded  when  the  population  of 
Connecticut  was  only  twenty-one  per  cent,  of  the  pres- 
ent population  of  Colorado,  and  the  population  of  Mas- 
sachusetts was  only  one  half  that  of  Colorado.  But 
those  wise  men  said  thev  must  have  another  coUegce, 
and  they  went  to  England  begging  ;  and  the  men  who 
had  grown  up  under  the  shadows  of  Oxford  and  Cam- 
bridge gave  them  money.  Colorado  needs  a  college 
five  times  as  much  as  Connecticut  did  Yale  at  the  time 
it  was  begun.  For  nineteen  years  Yale  College  had 
no  building  of  its  own.  Colorado  College  has  already 
shown  energy  enough  to  erect  a  wooden  building  and 
outgrow  it,  and  the  people  on  the  ground  are,  at  this 
moment,  expending  more  than  ten  thousand  dollars  on 
the  main  block  of  a  beautiful  l)uildino:  for  the  infant 
college. 

Yale  College  was  begun  by  the  gathering  of  a  hand- 
ful of  books  by  a  few  pastors,  who  desired  to  perpetu- 
ate an  educated  ministry.  Dartmouth  was  a  charity 
school  established  in  the  woods.  Amherst  not  long 
since  had  a  senior  class  of  two.  Those  men  are  wise  — 
the  founders  of  a  noble  Christian  influence  to  be  per- 
petuated as  long  as  the  earth  wheels  around  the  sun  — 


80  THE  NEW  WEST. 

who  give  the  money  needful  to  establish  the  feeble 
beginnings  of  those  Christian  colleges  fostered  by  the 
American  College  and  Education  Society. 

The  fathers  of  New  Eno-land  thoug-ht  it  best  to 
found  colleges  when  the  population  was  sparse,  and 
when  the  people  were  poor ;  and  they  did  it  with  little 
idea  of  the  future  growth  of  the  nation.  The  Massa- 
chusetts Bay  men  decided  that  the  population  was 
never  likely  to  be  very  dense  west  of  Newton.  The 
founders  of  Lynn  exploring  ten  or  fifteen  miles,  doubted 
whether  the  country  was  good  for  anything  further 
west  than  that.  I  suspect  that  they  loved  the  sea,  and 
deemed  life  of  no  value  out  of  the  sight  and  the  sound 
of  it.  But  they  wanted  a  college  ;  and  Old  England 
said  they  ought  to  have  one,  and  paid  cash  down  on 
the  words.  We  go  to  men,  to-day,  who  believe  that 
our  country  is  likely  to  be  settled  west  of  Newton  ;. 
and  they  believe  in  the  manifest  destinj^  of  tlie  nation  ; 
and  they  know  that  the  New  West  will  have  a  large 
population  in  the  near  future  ;  and  they  know  that  the 
planting  of  a  Christian  college  is  the  only  possible 
power  b}^  which  to  fortify  a  Christian  stronghold  in 
that  region,  —  and  they  will  give  most  generously  the 
small  amount  that  is  needed  in  these  first  years  of  Col- 
orado College. 

The  extent  to  which  our  early  colleges  depended  on 
the  aid  of  the  mother  country  is  not  commonly  known 
by  those  who  refuse  to  give  to  a  college  two  thousand 
miles  west  of  them,  although  they  are  themselves  in- 
debted to  men  three  thousand  miles  east  of  them  for 
the  higher  education  which  now  illuminates  the  path- 
way of  their  children.  It  would  be  possible  to  fill 
pages  with  the  record.  The  name  of  Thomas  Hollis  i» 
not  less  honorable  than  that  of  the  scholars  who  de- 
rived advautnge  from  liis  princely  gifts.      The  worship- 


JEAR   MANITOU    MINERAL   SPRINGS. 


THE  NEW  WEST.  83 

pel's  ill  the  chapel  built  by  Madaiu  Jiuldeii,  weie  be- 
holden to  her  as  truly  as  to  the  preacher.  Hugh  Peters 
did  valiant  service  for  Harvard  Collesre  as  he  did  Cor 
Cromwell.  William  Pennoyer  is  not  in  itself  a  name  to 
attract  notice  ;  but  he  has  been  aiding  poor  students  at 
Harvard  for  more  than  two  hundred  years,  as  if  he 
were  living  in  Cambridge,  century  after  century,  and 
dejding  out  money  to  help  wortli}^  young  men  tlirough 
college.  When  Lady  Moulson  gave  a  hundred  pounds 
to  this  college  over  sea,  she  purchased  for  herself  the 
gratitude  of  students  during  two  hundred  thirty  years 
past,  and  thousands  of  years  to  come.  Henry  Henley, 
of  Dorsetshire,  might  have  given  twenty-seven  pounds 
for  a  gravestone,  and  it  would  have  crumbled  ;  but  his 
name  is  now  read  and  honored,  after  two  hundred 
years,  by  most  seholarlj^  men  in  America,  and  it  will 
be  transmitted  till  the  world  grows  old,  and  Harvard 
Square  makes  room  for  Mount  Auburn, 

The  first  printing  press  of  America,  north  of  Mex- 
ico, was  the  o-ift  of  certain  o:entlemen  in  Amsterdam  to 
Harvard  College  ;  and  Joseph  Glover,  of  England,  gave 
the  type. 

Very  few  persons  know  that  Elihu  Yale  Avas  Gov- 
ernor of  the  East  India  Company,  but  there  is  no  part 
of  the  civilized  world  that  fails  to  honor  him  for  his  gifts 
to  the  college  in  New  Haven.  Among  the  most  pre- 
cious gifts,  to  this  college  in  the  wilderness,  were  books 
from  Sir  Isaac  Newton,  Sir  Richard  Steele.  Rev.  Mat- 
thew Henry,  Dr.  Isaac  AVatts,  Bishop  Berkley,  John 
Erskine,  and  other  eminent  men. 

The  College  of  New  Jersey  obtained  very  large  sums 
in  England,  beyond  all  expectation  of  the  parties  in- 
terested. The  treasurer's  books  are  lost,  but  President 
Davies  collected  in  one  visit  twelve  hundred  pounds. 

Dr.  Wheelock,  of  Dartmouth,  obtained  funds  from 


84  THE  NEW  WEST. 

the  Prince  of  Orano-e,  and  officials  in  hio;h  station  in 
the  Netherlands.  The  Earl  of  Dartmouth,  and  other 
Englishmen,  took  the  deepest  interest  in  his  work,  and 
gave  largely. 

Our  colleges  have  been  from  the  beginning  a  set  of 
learned  beggars.  There  is  a  Brotherhood  of  Mendi- 
cants at  this  time  in  America,  hailing  from  the  West, 
pleading  at  the  doors  of  the  rich  and  the  large-hearted 
in  the  East.  My  friend  Dr.  Morrison,  of  Drury,  says, 
"  Do  not  call  us  Presidents,  but  Beggars,  —  College 
Beo'o-ars." 

The  Lord  of  Hosts  is  not  weary  of  hearing  the  pite- 
ous cry  of  beggars  on  the  earth.  We  are  all  suppliants. 
God  give  us  what  we  need,  and  let  us  turn  no  deaf  ear 
to  any  who  come  to  us  as  we  go  to  Him.  Christ  is  not 
impatient  of  perpetual  prayers.  Dr.  Kirk  loved  to  be 
called  upon  l)y  Christ  in  the  person  of  his  poor.  As  a 
matter  of  honor,  let  us  at  the  least  be  patient  if  a  col- 
lege beggar  rings  the  door-bell,  and  asks  us  to  do  for 
some  Western  college  what  our  ancestors  asked  Old 
England  to  do  for  them. 


^&' 


There  is  a  perpetual  law  of  increase,  which  puts 
great  dignity  upon  small  gifts  to  a  worthy  institution 
of  learning.  A  handful  of  poor  students  gathered  in  a 
barn  at  Cambridge,  and  the  University  has  flourished 
century  after  century;  lines  of  kings  have  reigned  a 
little  while  and  given  place  to  others,  but  the  line  of 
scholars,  earnestly  searching  for  truth  and  nobly  con- 
tending for  it,  has  not  failed,  nor  will  until  the  brine  of 
Britisli  seas  ceases  to  be  salt.  When  a  university  is 
once  rooted,  if  it  has  in  its  own  character  the  right  to 
live,  it  is  little  more  likely  to  be  torn  up  than  the 
Church  of  the  living  God. 

*'  Every    founded    institution,    especially   every    one 


THE  NEW  WEST.  85 

which  is  founded  on  a  principle  and  not  on  a  tradition, 
which  holds  an  idea  within  it,  and  does  not  simply 
shelter  an  interest,  shows  a  tendency  to  grow ;  to  Ije- 
come  developed  from  a  less  to  a  larger,  and  to  grow 
■compact  and  copious  with  years.  If  it  be  reared  to 
consult  mere  commercial  or  political  advantage,  this 
may  not  be.  If  it  be  founded  to  gratify  pride,  to  put 
the  crown  upon  personal  ambition,  or  even  to  subserve 
the  mere  convenience  of  society,  this  will  not  be.  But 
if  it  be  founded  on  a  permanent  demand  of  human 
nature  itself,  and  be  intrinsically  ;idapted  to  that,  this 
tendency  is  as  certain  as  that  of  the  date-fruit  to  grow 
into  a  palm,  and  will  be  as  jDcrmanent  as  the  fitness  of 
the  institution  to  accomplish  its  ends.  And  in  no  case 
is  this  exemplified  more  fully  than  in  that  of  the  Col- 
lege." ^ 

Princeton  College  would  not,  however,  have  received 
the  munificent  gifts  which  have  made  her  so  rich  in 
recent  years, —  a  single  donor  bestowing  upon  her 
seven  hundred  and  tifty  thousand  dollars,  —  if  she 
had  not  had  a  definite  beginnino;  in  a  loc»:-hut  a  hun- 
dred  and  forty  years  ago.'  For  more  than  a  hundred 
years  the  College  was  poor,  a  charity  fund  of  twelve 
thousand  dollars  being  its  only  endowment.  If  the 
Christian  people  of  the  East  will  put  in  the  foundations 
of  a  Christian  College  in  the  New  West,  it  will  be  in 
position  to  receive  benefit  from  the  law  of  increase, 
and  the  little  wooden  buildini;-  where  the  students  now 
meet  will  become  historic. 

^  E,.  S.  Storrs,  LL.  D.,  College  Society  Address. 

2  Tho  L'arned  historian  of  tlie  College  of  New  Jersey  may  deny  I'riiico- 
ton's  connection  with  the  lo;j;s,  —  and  most  likely  he  is  riiiht,  —  but  that  hut 
twenty  feet  square  has  a  place  in  the  jwpidar  imagination;  and  it  will  be  as 
hard  for  him  to  remove  it  from  the  history  of  this  revered  college,  as  it  is 
to  disi)lace  William  Tell  from  the  minds  of  men. 


86  THE  NEW   WEST. 

The  churches  in  Colorado  are  poor ;  but  they  give 
for  Christian  purposes  on  a  scale  of  generosity  quite 
unknown  by  the  average  church  member  in  the  East. 
As  a  class  those  who  attend  upon  Christian  worship, 
even  if  they  are  not  church  members,  are  public  spir- 
ited, and  heroic  in  bearing  heavy  burdens  and  aiding 
every  good  cause.  Every  denomination  in  the  New 
West  has  a  severe  struggle  in  carrying  on  its  work. 
Very  few  churches  are  self-sustaining.  And  it  is  always 
true  in  a  new  country  that  it  takes  time  for  the  Gos- 
pel to  make  itself  felt  as  a  moulding  power  in  society. 
It  is  impossible  to  build  up  a  college  without  Eastern 
aid.  All  will  hail  with  gladness  any  gifts  which  will 
make  it  possible  for  the  poor  to  educate  their  children 
in  Colorado,  and  to  train  the  men  needed  for  this  vast 
mission  field.  "  Ships  are  first  built,  and  then  sent  on 
voyages,"  says  Mr.  Beecher,  "  but  Western  States  are 
as  if  men  were  rafted  to  sea  with  materials,  and  were 
obliged  to  build  the  ship  under  them  while  they 
sailed ;  yea,  and  to  grapple  in  desperate  conflict  with 
piratical  errors  and  red  rovers  of  ignorance,  while  yet 
they  are  laying  down  the  decks  and  setting  up  the  rig- 
ging." ^  Nearly  all  the  ready  money  in  a  new  State  is 
used  in  developing  the  country,  in  making  the  phys- 
ical basis  for  society.  This  is  necessarily  so.  But  as 
the  years  go  by,  many  of  the  investments  will  return, 
and  churches  and  seminaries  of  learnino;  will  be  less 
dependent  upon  the  older  civilization. 

The  amount  of  money  needed  to  put  a  Christian 
college  upon  a  good  foundation,  and  to  place  it  in  po- 
sition to  take  advantage  of  the  law  of  increase,  is  not 
relatively  large.  Williams  College  has  made  itself  felt 
with  great  power  in  the  moral  world,  and  her  fifteen 
hundred  graduates  in  sixty  years  have  borne  an  hon- 

^  College  Society  Address. 


THE  NFAV   IVEST.  87 

orable  part  in  national  history.  Yet  her  capital  was 
not  (luring  any  part  of  that  time  more  than  fifty  thou- 
sand dollars.^  With  one  or  two  hundred  thousand 
dollars  cash  capital  a  college  can  do  good  \v<jrk  ;  and, 
as  the  years  go  by,  it  will  grow  under  the  law  of  in- 
crease. It  is  the  privilege  of  donors  to  the  American 
College  and  Education  Society  to  render  such  aid  that, 
with  the  gifts  of  local  friends,  the  college  will  certainly 
go  forward  with  increasing  power  in  future  ages.  The 
pledge  of  the  trustees  binding  their  successors,  in  con- 
sideration of  these  early  gifts  of  Christian  men,  to 
maintain  a  Christian  institution,  is  a  pledge  of  ffir 
reaching  influence,  since,  after  the  first  generations,  the 
college  will  from  time  to  time  by  the  law  of  increase 
receive  the  appointments  of  a  university. 

The  silver  and  the  gold  belong  to  Him  who  rules 
the  world,  and  it  is  not  difficult  for  Him  to  honor  in- 
strumentalities that  honor  Him.  Consecrated  gold  from 
the  Colorado  Mountains  will  enlarge  and  beautify  her 
Christian  Colleo-e.  Oxford  and  Cambridi^-e  have  been 
built  up  by  private  gifts.  The  capitalists  who  coin 
money  in  the  New  West  will  gladly  aid  in  upbuilding 
institutions  of  learninti;.  In  the  first  four  vears  of  the 
present  decade,  thirty-three  million  dollars  were  given 
by  private  donors  to  the  higher  education  in  the  United 
States.  Men  who  are  enriched  by  scientific  research, 
love  to  bestow  money  on  deserving  colleges.  Colorado 
College,  which  now  rejoices  greatly  over  a  few  pounds 
of  butter  or  one  or  two  sheep,  as  Harvard  was  formerly 
made  glad  by  pecks  of  corn,  will,  we  believe,  some  day 
become  rich  as  Harvard  with  money  by  the  million. 

In  no  way  is  Colorado  College  likely  to  be  benefited 
so  immediately  and  so  largely  as  by  the  interest  which 

^  Dr.  Hopkins,  CoUerje  Society  Aildress,  18;"r2. 


88 


THE  NEW   WEST. 


public  spirited  men  will  take  in  endowing  a  depart- 
ment of  Natural  History,  when  they  once  become  ac- 
quainted with  the  necessity  for  scientific  studies  in  the 
New  West,  and  tlie  rare  facilities  there  offered  for  their 
successful  pursuit. 

Broad  minded  men  will  easily  see  how  needful  is 
scientific  investigation  to  give  a  proportionate  cultnre 
to  students  preparing  for  the  Christian  ministry.  A 
half  edvicated  clergyman  is  nowhere  more  out  of  place 


(    ni.VKNNK    (    ANiiN. 


than  in  a  mining  countr\' ;  in  a  region  where  multi- 
tudes are  drawn  together  by  gilt  edged  sermons  in 
stones.  Narrowness,  conceit,  and  ignorance  cannot 
hope  to  attract  thoughtful  men  who  earn  their  living 
by  being  experts  in  science.  Is  it  said  that  the  man 
of  God  must  make  short  school  days  in  a  new  country  ? 
Unless  his  schooling  is  long  enough  to  teach  him  to 
open  his  eyes  and  read  God's  revelation  in  the  natural 


THE  NEW   WJt:ST.  89 

world,  he  will  never  be  fit  for  his  work.  It  is  to  the 
credit  of  the  American  IJoard  of  Foreii^n  Missions  that 
so  many  men  have  been  sent  abroad,  who  have  made 
important  contribntions  to  scientific  knowledge.  Carl 
Ritter  valued  the  ''Missionary  Herald  "  as  a  rich  store- 
house of  scientific,  historical,  and  anticjuarian  knowl- 
edge ;  Humboldt  also  read  it  with  constant  interest. 
Have  not  the  Home  Missionary  Societies  sent  to  the 
front  men  of  character  and  culture,  who  have  founded 
schools  of  learninu'  in  everv  new  State  '.'  Colorado  Col- 
lege  will  not  be  a  suitable  place  in  which  to  train  liome 
missionaries,  unless  it  is  thoroughly  equipped  in  its 
Department  of  Natural  History.  Clergymen  must  be 
subjected  to  a  discipline  so  well  proportioned,  that  the 
college,  which  serves  them,  will  also  attract  students 
who  desire  to  prepare  themselves  for  other  callings  in 
life.  Will  not  men  of  native  refinement  and  liberal 
culture,  who  gather  wealth  from  the  mines  of  the  New 
West,  be  swift  to  connect  their  names  with  endow- 
ments for  Natural  Science  in  Colorado  College  ?  The 
location  is  one  of  the  best  in  the  world  for  establish- 
ino'  a  Minino'  School,  whose  fame  will  go  out  to  all  the 
world.  Will  not  the  name  of  the  far-sighted  founder 
of  mining  instruction  in  Colorado  College  be  recalled 
with  gratitude,  during  endless  generations,  by  the  sci- 
entific students  who  will  live  and  labor  among  the 
Colorado  mountains  ? 

The  means  for  industrial  education  will  certainly 
prove  a  part  of  the  endowment  of  any  well  ordered 
college  in  the  New  AVest.  It  is  essential  for  aiding 
needy  students,  for  promoting  a  manly  independence, 
for  training  those  who  will  develop  the  material  inter- 
ests of  the  country,  and  for  preparing  young  men,  to 
induct  semi-barbarous  populations  into  the  nnvteries  of 
civilized  life.     There  are  men  in  the  valley  of  the  Mis- 


90  THE  NEW  WEST. 

sissippi,  in  the  East,  in  England,  npon  the  continent 
of  Enrope,  who  have  amassed  wealth  by  iron  working, 
by  manufactnring  machinery,  or  dry  goods  by  machin- 
ery,  or  by  traffic  in  the  resnlts  of  skilled  labor,  who 
appreciate  the  importance  of  training  intelligent  youth 
in  schools  of  design,  and  in  handling  tools ;  and  they 
will  be  glad  to  fonnd  in  the  New  West  an  education 
which  will  enrich  the  country  through  the  skilled  labor 
of  the  bright  and  energetic  sons  of  pioneers. 

The  great  plains  and  mountain  regions  of  western 
America  offer  to-day  the  most  attractive  resort  in  the 
world  to  the  student  of  geology.  Colorado  College  is 
surrounded  by  the  most  remarkable  formations  on  the 
continent.  The  telegraph  has  l)een  busy  in  announcing 
the  inaportant  discoveries  of  new  fossils  in  this  region, 
—  discoveries  which  have  attracted  great  attention  in 
Europe,  and  which  have  led,  at  least,  one  eminent  sa- 
vant to  cross  the  Atlantic  to  examine  these  treasures 
from  the  Rocky  Mountain  j)lateau.  Unknown  species 
of  animals  and  plants  are  so  abundant,  that  Professor 
Cope  has  obtained  from  the  ancient  sea  and  lake  de- 
posits of  western  Kansas,  Colorado,  W\'Oming,  and 
Idaho,  nearly  three  hundred  and  fifty  species  of  verte- 
brate animals,  of  which  he  has  made  known  to  science 
for  the  first  time  more  than  two  hundred  species.  One 
summer  yielded  to  him  one  hundred  new  species.  In- 
credible numbers  of  fossils  —  monkey,  snake,  lizard, 
tiger,  turtle,  rhinoceros  —  indicate  a  great  harvest,  if 
trained  men  are  put  into  the  field.  Birds  with  teeth 
and  strange  creatures  excite  the  surprise  of  scientific 
men.  Kansas  has  yielded  thirty  species  of  saurians 
within  a  few  years;  all  Europe,  sixteen  in  a  century. 
The  researches  of  Professor  Marsh  have  made  a  new 
era  in  pak'ontology.  When  the  New  West  is  as  S3^'^te- 
matically  explored  as  Europe,  which  has  been  overrun 


THE  NFAY   WEST.  91 

with  such  minuteness  by  competent  geologists,  the  re- 
sults will  prove  ;i  most  important  contriljiition  to  the 
scientific  knowledge  of  the  world.  But  the  New  West 
is  of  so  irre.'it  extent  that  it  will  be  difhcult  to  com- 
plete  the  work  by  l)rief  excursions  of  savants  from  the 
East.  Capable  men  should  be  trained  in  the  very  re- 
o-ion  where  the  service  is  to  be  rendered.     Professor 

o 

Kerr,  of  Colorado  College,  has  found  saurian  remains 
within  three  miles  of  his  class  room.  The  area  of 
country  close  at  hand  is  also  rich  in  fossil  plants,  a 
larsre  number  of  which  are  new.  It  is  no  wonder  that 
college  students  and  their  ])rofessors  from  the  East  visit 
this  reo-ion  for  summer  studies.  There  is  no  better 
location  in  which  to  remain,  if  they  wish  to  pursue  out- 
of-door  work  in  geology. 

The  study  of  stratified  geology  can  be  carried  on  in  no 
part  of  America  to  so  good  advantage  as  within  five 
miles  of  Colorado  College.  At  Colorado  Springs,  says 
Professor  Hayden,^  ''  there  is  an  area  of  about  ten 
miles  square  that  contains  more  material  of  geological 
interest  than  any  other  area  of  equal  extent  that  I 
have  seen  in  the  West."-  ''To  the  geologist  Colorado 
is  almost  encyclopedic  in  its  character,  containing  with- 
in its  borders  nearly  every  variety  of  geological  forma- 

^  Prt'liminary  Field  Report,  paire  4. 

-  Formations  in  Azoic  tinu-  are  .^ccn  in  Williams'  Canon,  five  niilos  from 
till'  Colleije. 

In  I'nk'ozoic  time  there  are  sections  of  Silnrian  })(m]s  in  the  same  locality, 
resting:  on  the  jjranite,  also  in  (ilen  Eyrie  and  Cheyenne  Canon.  The 
Carl )oniferons  period  is  ilhistratcd  in  a  short  hclt  north  of  ^Taniton:  fossil 
plants  are  found. 

In  Mesozoic  time,  the  Triassic  formation  appears  in  the  Garden  of  the 
Gods,  the  belt  rnnnin":  north;  a  parallel  Jurassic  belt  is  fountl  at  short 
distance  east  of  it.  Colorado  Springs  is  built  upon  the  Cretaceous  forma- 
tion; fossils  abundant. 

Austin's  Bluffs,  east  of  the  College,  illustrate  Cenozoic  time.  — From 
article  in  "  Colorado  Sprinr/s  Gazette,^'  ha^cd  on  Hai/den'x  .Ma/>. 


92  THE  NEW   WEST. 

tion.^  Southwestern  Colorado  is  a  region  of  remark- 
able interest.  When  the  Colorado  River  reo-ion  be- 
comes  lamiliar  to  the  eye  and  to  the  hammer  of 
science,  and  all  the  treasures  of  this  wild  West  are 
made  known,  there  will  be  fewer  imperfections  in  the 
geological  record.  There  is  a  noble  future  for  the 
scientific  students  of  the  New  West,  as  they  trace 
the  events  in  the  history  of  the  globe. 

It  would  not  be  difficult  to  indicate  the  interest  of 
the  botanist  in  the  new  world  of  livino-  and  of  fossil 
plants  revealed  in  the  far  West.  Some  of  the  fossils 
are  of  remarkable  beauty. 

It  is  stated  upon  good  authority  that  the  tertiary 
strata  of  the  Rocky  Mountain  plateau  are  richer  in  fos- 
sil insects  than  any  other  country  in  the  world.  An- 
cient centipedes,  bees,  and  butterflies,  and  a  vast 
variety  of  flying  and  creeping  things  in  stone,  are 
gathered  by  learned  Professors,  as  eagerly  as  boys 
chase  livino-  butterflies. 

o 

And  it  is  in  this  very  region,  that  astronomical  obser- 
vations can  be  conducted  under  peculiarly  favorable 
conditions.  The  most  eminent  astronomers  are  of  the 
opinion  that  our  knowledge  of  the  heavenly  bodies 
would  be  vastly  increased  by  planting  one  of  the  best 
telescopes  in  the  world  upon  some  mountain  plateau,, 
in  a  clear  atmosphere,  and  where  the  sky  is  free  from 
clouds  the  greater  portion  of  the  3^ear.  It  seemed  at 
one  time  as  if  the  project  to  establish  an  observatory 
upon  the  Sierra  Nevada  was  likely  to  meet  this  want ; 
but  Mr.  Lick's  gift  will  now  enrich  the  Universit}^  of 
California  upon  the  coast.  Colorado  Springs  is  six 
thousand  feet  above  the  sea,  and  it  is  easy  to  find  in 
the  neighborhood  a  higher  altitude,  if  it  be  desirable, 
where  the  conditions    of  climate    are    most   favorable. 

1  Ilaydcn,  Prdinunarij  Field  Report,  page  4. 


CHEYENNE    FALLS,    NEAR   COLORADO   SPRINGS 


THE   NEW   WEST.  95 

So  important  is  dryness  of  climate  and  purity  of  at- 
mosphere for  the  best  astronomical  work  that  two  em- 
inent French  scientists  have  selected  a  station  in  the 
New  West,  to  observe  this  year's  transit  of  Mercury. 
A  world-wide  fame  is  awaiting  the  man,  who  will  so 
endow  the  astronomical  department  of  Colorado  Col- 
lege that  the  observatory  which  bears  his  name  will 
make  the  most  brilliant  discoveries  the  world  has 
known. 

Colorado  College  is,  therefore,  in  every  respect  well 
located  for  deriving  early  advantage  from  the  law  of 
increase,  through  the  interest  of  donors  who  desire  to 
promote  the  study  of  natural  science.  Persons  of 
wealth  who  derive  advantage  from  the  Colorado  cli- 
mate, as  well  as  those  who  have  made  satisfactorv  in- 
vestments  in  the  business  enterprises  of  the  country, 
W'ill  be  quick  to  discern  the  advantages  of  the  situation 
for  building  up  an  institution  of  learning.  Somewhere 
in  the  great  central  regions  of  America  there  will  be 
a  university  town,  whose  fame  will  increase  with  the 
advancing  centuries.  It  is  probal)le  that  there  is  no 
point,  all  things  considered,  more  favorable  for  such  a 
seat  of  learnino;  than  that  chosen  for  Colorado  College. 

The  endowment  papers  of  Colorado  College  have 
been  most  carefully  drawn  by  that  eminent  legal  ad- 
viser and  princely  founder  of  a  Christian  college, 
Henry  F.  Durant.  They  are  guarded  at  every  point, 
to  make  sure  that  the  money  is  used  as  the  donors 
desire.  An  agreement  is  entered  into  between  the 
College  and  the  American  College  and  Education 
Society  and  the  donors,  by  which  the  money  is  given 
to  the  Society  in  trust  for  the  College,  to  be  used  to 
promote  Christian  education  in  Colorado.  The  Society 
reserves   the    right   to   guard   the   investments  of  the 


96  THE  NEW  WEST. 

money  given  to  the  College  in  trust  by  the  Society. 
The  teachers  are  to  be  Christian  men.  Biblical  instruc- 
tion is  to  be  furnished.  Tlie  scope  of  the  College  con- 
templates the  highest  and  broadest  culture,  —  educa- 
tion fit  for  men  as  well  as  for  boys.  It  also  makes 
provision  for  the  gradual  growth  of  a  training  school 
for  home  missionaries.  Two  thirds  of  the  trustees 
must  be  of  Christian  membership.  One  of  the  officers 
of  the  American  College  and  Education  Society  must 
be  a  perpetual  trustee  of  the  College.  If  the  college 
property  is  turned  over  to  any  differently  chartered  in- 
stitution, or  loses  its  franchise,  or  is  not  faithful  to  this 
trust,  the  money  reverts  to  the  American  College  and 
Education  Society.  Although  the  work  of  the  College 
Department  of  the  American  College  and  Education 
Society  may  not  be  needed  in  a  distant  future,  there 
will  still  be  necessity  for  aiding  young  men  in  prepar- 
ing for  the  ministry ;  so  that  this  corporation  is  likely 
to  exist  as  long  as  the  College.  Money  given  to  the 
American  Colleg-e  and  Education  Societv  for  Colorado 
College  will  be  as  sure  to  accomplish  the  end  sought 
by  the  donors  as  any  foresight  can  make  it.  Divine 
Providence  is  just  as  likely  to  take  care  of  the  trust,  if 
the  legal  instruments  are  well  drawn,  as  if  they  were 
prepared  carelessly  or  not  prepared  at  all. 

If  any  investments  are  solid  and  lasting  they  are 
found  in  gifts  to  this  Society.  ''  It  is  putting  money 
where  the  safe^-uards  of  liiw  will  surround  it  forever."^ 
"  The  boards  that  control  such  institutions  are  ordi- 
narily selected  for  their  capacity,  intelligence,  honesty, 
practical  wisdom,  and  interest  in  the  cause  of  learning. 
....  Tlie  individuals  in  question  are  put  under  the 
guardianship  of  law  and  of  a  watchful  connnunity,  and 
under  all  the  sanctions  that  come  from  the  sacredness- 

1    II.  {).  UiUlorficlil,  D.  D.,  Coll.  Sor.  Rep. 


THE  A'HJW    WEST.  97 

of  the  trust  coinmitterl  to  them,  a  trust  that  touches 
upon  the  highest  weUare  of  Church  and  State,  and  bears 
not  only  on  the  interests  of  the  Uving  age  but  of  gen- 
erations to  come."  ^  Yale  College  has  never  lost  a  "■  dol- 
lar committed  by  any  donor  fjr  permanent  inyestment." 
So,  too,  not  the  smallest  donations  made  to  Harvard  Col- 
lege in  its  infancy  have  been  lost  sight  of;  they  "  are 
at  the  present  moment  as  secure  and  remunerative  as 
those  of  yesterday."  -  God  does  not  cease  to  preserve 
property  when  it  is  funded  for  education.  Can  we  not 
trust  Him  out  of  our  si£!;ht  ? 

Nor  can  it  be  said  that  college  foundations  are  liable 
to  much  perversion.  In  view  of  the  changes  Avliich 
centuries  have  made  in  the  great  universities  of  Eng- 
land, the  Parliamentary  Commission  expresses  its  con- 
fidence in  the  wisdom  of  these  permanent  foundations 
by  recommendino;  their  laro-e  increase.  The  schools  are, 
by  the  law,  kept  true  to  the  spirit,  if  not  always  the 
letter,  of  the  founders.  The  experience  of  ages  has 
shown  that  the  ideas  of  the  founders  have  been,  to  a 
remarkable  degree,  perpetuated ;  nor  does  any  tempo- 
rary chano-e  indicate  that  the  trust  will  not  be  fulfilled 
as  the  years  go  by.  "  The  spirit  of  the  founders  of  an 
institution  is  a  permanent  spirit.  .  .  .  The  promise  is 
not  more  sure  to  parents  in  the  training  of  their  children, 
than  is  the  providence  of  God  in  regard  to  the  pious 
founders  of  institutions  of  learning."  ^  The  character 
of  a  Christian  college,  as  it  is  formed  age  after  age, 
becomes  the  best  security  for  the  right  use  of  donations 
made  to  it.  The  presence  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the 
world  is  a  factor  to  l)e  counted  on  in  estimating  the 
probability    of   the    moral    advancement    of   mankind. 

^  Twenty-Jir.'tt  Report  College  Society. 

2  Twenty-fourth  Coll.  Soc.  Report. 

3  Fourteenth  Report  College  Society. 


98  THE  NEW   WEST. 

This  Spiritual  Presence  will  uphold  the  Christian  col- 
lege ;  and  without  this  preserving  energizing  Power  no 
forms  of  law  can  perpetuate  vital  Christianity.  But 
this  Power  is  constantly  acting  upon  the  human  race, 
surrounding  us  like  the  atmosphere  we  breathe.  It  is 
proper  to  place  dependence  upon  this  ftict.  It  is, 
therefore,  a  well  grounded  faith  which  says  of  the 
Christian  colleg;e :  — 

"If  it  include  Christianity  at  the  outset,  and  be 
framed  to  express  that,  then  will  that  probably  reign 
in  and  inspire  it,  with  a  power  more  apparent  at  some 
times  than  at  others,  but  real  all  the  time,  even  unto 
the  end.  It  is  not  so  much  the  provisions  of  charters, 
enforced  by  courts,  that  will  secure  this.  The  self- 
evolving  life  of  the  college  itself,  in  the  long  run,  insures 
the  result.  And,  as  thus  vitally  and  permanently  asso- 
ciated with  such  centres  of  power,  Christianity  will  have 
a  hold  on  our  country  that  cannot  be  paralleled,  and 
that  never  Q,Mi  be  shaken.  You  might  as  well  shake  the 
mountain  from  its  base,  which  is  bolted  by  columns 
and  shafts  of  granite  to  the  centre  of  the  earth."  -^ 

"  All  things  considered,"  says  President  Eliot,  ''  there 
is  no  form  of  endowment  for  the  benefit  of  mankind 
more  permanent,  more  secure  from  abuse,  or  surer  to 
do  good,  than  the  endowment  of  public  teaching  in  a 
well  oro;anized  institution  of  learning." 

Sir  Henry  Maine,  in  an  address  before  the  University 
of  Calcutta,  gives  it  as  his  "  fixed  opinion  that  there  is 
no  surer,  no  easier,  no  cheaper  road  to  innnortality  — 
such  as  can  be  obtained  in  this  world  —  than  that 
which  lies  through  li])orality  expending  itself  in  the 
formation  of  educational  endowments." 

There  is  no  way  in  which  a  friend  of  Christ  and  a 
lover  of  the   human   race   can  so  certainly  perpetuate 

^  Dr.  K.  S.  Storrs,  CoHcrje  Society  Address:. 


THE  NEW   WEST.  99 

his  influence  in  some   definite  form,  easily  traced  and 
recognized,  as  by  the  founding  of  a  Christian  college 
in  a  region  and   under  circumstances  where  it  will  be- 
come a  great  power  for  good.     When  men's  lives  are 
perpetuated   in  a  definite  charity,  so  that  they  can  be 
hailed  by  name   by  those  who   are  benefited  by  it  in 
distant  ages,  their  lives  at  once  seem  to  us  the  nobler 
while  they  are  with  us,  and  their  names  are  taken  at 
once  out  of  the  obscurity  of  the  common  check  list  or 
tax  list  and  placed  upon  enduring  tablets,  which  gener- 
ations to  come  will  rise  up  and  honor.     "  It  is  only  a 
few    men    of   rare    discernment     ....     who    can 
look   beyond   immediate   and   temporary   issues  to  re- 
mote and  permanent  results.     It  is,  therefore,  simple 
even-handed  justice  to  bestow  rare   honor  on  men  of 
such  rare  wisdom  and  virtue  ;  to  perpetuate  their  mem- 
ories by  making  them  commensurate  with  the  duration 
of  the  institutions  which  they  have  founded  ;  to  mete 
out  to  them  a  height  of  renown,  a  breadth  of  esteem, 
and   a    depth    of   veneration    corresponding   with   the 
breadth  and  length  and    height    and    depth    of  their 
foundations,  and   the  comprehensiveness  of  views  and 
elevation   of  sentiments   by  which   they   were    distin- 
guished ;  it  is  right  and  proper  that  those  who  have 
studied  and  labored  and  prayed  and  denied  themselves, 
and  sacrificed    themselves  to  educate   and   enrich  the 
minds  and  hearts  of  many  generations,  should  be  en- 
shrined in  the  grateful  and  affectionate  remembrance 
of  men  from  age  to  age."  ^ 

There  are  single  families  that  could  equip  a  Chris- 
tian college  in  the  West,  and  set  it  forward  upon  a  ca- 
reer of  usefulness,  so  long  as  grass  will  spring  on  the 

^  Professor  Tvler,   Dhcourse    Commemorative  of  the  Hon.  Samuel   Wa- 
ist on. 


100  THE  NEW  WEST. 

prairies  or  snow  melt  on  the  sides  of  the  mountains. 
"  Never  lay  np  money,"  said  the  missionarj^  Judson, 
"  for  yourselves  or  your  families.  Trust  in  God  from 
day  to  day,  and  verily  you  shall  be  fed."  It  is  impos- 
sible to  make  provision  for  families,  which  will  hold  for 
any  great  length  of  time  in  America.  Even  in  Eng- 
land, where  the  descent  of  property  is  made  a  study 
and  hedged  about  by  law,  the  experience  of  centuries 
shows  that  the  term  of  a  wealthy  house  is  short.  It  is 
better  that  the  sons  of  the  rich  should  be  self  reliant ;  if 
they  are  not,  they  are  not  competent  to  care  for  prop- 
erty, and  soon  lose  it.  There  is  no  such  spur  as  ne- 
cessity. Are  there  not  many  households  scattered 
throughout  the  country,  which  could  easilj^  found  a 
Christian  college,  and  then  have  abundance  left  for  the 
next  generation  of  their  own  kin,  so  much  at  least  as 
would  serve  as  a  capital  to  be  increased  if  well  man- 
aged. If  ill  managed  in  the  second  generation  it  is 
well  if  there  be  not  too  much  to  waste. 

A  country  minister,  accustomed  to  strong  language, 
once  asserted,  that,  when  the  bosom  of  charity  should 
beat  a  little  stronger,  men  would  be  found  to  sell  houses 
and  farms  to  promote  the  salvation  of  the  heathen. 
''  The  child  will  sit  down  and  weep,  who  may  not  say, 
that  his  flither  and  mother  were  the  friends  of  missions. 
And  what  parent  would  entail  such  a  curse  upon  his 
children,  and  prevent  them  from  lifting  up  their  heads 
in  the  millennium.  I  would  rather  leave  mine  toiling 
in  the  ditch,  there  to  enjoy  the  luxury  of  reflecting, 
that  a  father's  charity  made  them  poor.  Poor  !  They 
are  poor  who  cannot  feel  for  the  miseries  of  a  perishing 
world  ;  to  whom  God  has  given  abundance,  but  who 
grudge  to  use  it  for  His  honor.  Teach  your  children 
charity,  and   they  can   never   be   poor."  ^     Still,  when. 

1  Dani.-l  A.  Clark,  1).  I). 


THE  NEW  WEST.  \i)\ 

we  handle  the  Word  of  God,  and  pray  over  it,  we  can 
but  rise  from  our  knees  and  devise  charities  ;  and,  if  it 
is  possible  to  provide  spiritual  blessing  for  half  a  con- 
tinent through  all  ages  of  time,  we  welcome  the  privi- 
lege. "  I  cannot  tell  you  what  I  have  enjoyed.  It  is 
like  being  born  into  the  kingdom  again."  So  said  one 
who  had  given  fifty  thousand  dollars  cash  to  found  a 
Christian  college  in  a  needy  Western  field.  That  was 
an  hour  for  mutual  congratulation,  when  a  family  gath- 
ered to  pray  over  the  gift  of  twenty-five  thousand  dol- 
lars, invested  in  a  Christian  college  as  a  perpetual 
bounty  to  coming  ages.^ 

It  is  natural  for  parents  to  feel  that  their  property 
belongs  of  right  to  their  children.  They  have,  per- 
haps, struggled  for  years  to  earn  means  for  their 
maintenance.  Or  they  have  inherited  property,  which 
they  feel  it  to  be  a  duty  to  transmit.  Providence  has 
put  it  in  their  power  to  place  their  children  above  care, 
and  give  them  capit*;!  for  doing  business.  Their  habits 
of  caution  have  been  formed  by  years  of  anxiety  and 
careful  saving.  They  ha\e,  moreover,  had  little  defi- 
nite knowledge  of  the  good  to  be  accomplished  by 
given  charities,  and  the  certainty  of  bringing  about  the 
desired  result.  On  the  other  hand,  it  seems  clear  that 
their  children  will  not  misuse  the  property.  It  is  also 
true  that  the  mere  habit  of  holding  whatever  they  get 
is  firmly  fixed.  It  is  not  then  strange  that  a  large  sum 
is  often  bequeathed  to  relatives,  who  do  not  really 
need  it,  which  would,  if  otherwise  bestowed,  prove  a 
fountain  of  good  to  the  poor  of  the  world  during  end- 
less generations. 

We  are  permitted  to  bear  an  honoral)le  part  in  the 
world's  salvation.  It  is  possible  for  any  one  to  multi- 
ply his  personal  influence,  as  if  he  Avere  to  become  the 

^  First  Report,  American  College  and  Education  Society. 


102  THE  NEW  WEST. 

spiritual  and  intellectual  parent  of  thousands  of  stu- 
dents in  future  years.  Permanent  charities,  carefully 
guarded,  will  perpetuate  the  character  and  good  deeds 
of  the  donors  so  long  as  ships  sail  the  sea.  Do  we  not 
read  of  a  devout  man  in  an  Arabian  desert,  who  gave 
a  cup  of  cold  water  to  every  man  who  passed  his  door  ? 
It  was  to  him  a  precious  moment.  He  delighted  in 
doing  all  the  good  he  could  every  day.  But  it  was 
suggested  to  him.  that,  if  he  would  dig  a  well,  his 
beneficence  might  extend  to  caravans,  which  would 
pass  that  way  hundreds  of  years  after  his  death.  Trav- 
elers ready  to  perish  now  bless  his  memory,  as  they 
quench  their  thirst  at  the  well-side.  Will  not  those 
families,  whose  wealth  is  consecrated  to  Christ,  and 
whose  life  it  is  to  do  good  deeds,  set  apart  a  portion  of 
their  property  to  open  a  fountain  of  spiritual  life  in 
the  New  West,  where  it  will  satisfy  the  thirsty  until 
the  mountains  crumble  ? 

Sir  Matthew  Holworthy's  bequest  of  more  than 
twelve  hundred  pounds  to  Harvard  College,  two  cen- 
turies since,  is  making  glad  the  students  of  to-day  ; 
they  rejoice  in  it  as  in  the  light  of  some  distant  star, 
whose  beams  have  been  making  their  way  to  the  earth 
through  ages.  It  is  possible  for  us  to  light  up  the  dark 
lives  of  children  in  New  Mexico  in  the  next  genera- 
tion, by  gifts  to  Colorado  College  to-day.  The  Gospel 
light  will  go  forth  from  our  charities,  so  long  as  God's 
mercy  to  the  earth  endures.^ 

1  Colorado  College  is  in  need  of  funds  to  meet  the  current  expenses,  ana 
for  permanent  endowments.  Money  may  be  sent  to  J.  M.  Gordon,  Treas- 
urer (jf  the  American  College  and  Education  Society,  Boston,  or  John  K. 
Ihiiiiia,  Treasurer  of  the  College,  at  Denver,  Colorado. 

Money  by  bequest  may  lie  given  in  either  of  the  forms  following:  — 

I  f/ive  aitd  bequeath  to  the  Trustees  of  Colorado  CoUecje  the  sum  of , 

to  be  appropriated  by  the  Trustees  for  the  benefit  of  the  college,  in  such  manner 
OS  in  their  discretion  they  shall  think  will  be  most  useful. 

f)r,  —  I  give  and  bequeath  to  the  Trustees  of  Colorado  College  the  sun}  of 


THE  ^EW    WEST.  108 

Every  Christiiin  institution,  whose  fame  and  influ- 
ence now  fills  the  world,  had  a  definite  be<'-inning  in 
the  life  of  him  who  first  put  money  into  it.  The  found- 
ers of  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  of  Harvard,  Yale,  Dart- 
mouth, Princeton,  were  men  who  could  have  thrown 
their  silver  into  the  sea,  or  they  could  have  spent  it  in 
building  more  barn  room  for  their  goods.  It  would 
have  been  easy  for  them  to  have  missed  immortality. 
It  is  not  difficult  to  negjlect  noble  deeds.  But  those 
men  are  to  be  envied,  who,  having  it  in  their  power 
to  gather  wealth,  have  also  the  sagacity  to  seize  rare 
opportunities  for  usefulness.  The  Venetian  merchants 
of  the  thirteenth  century  stamped  the  image  of  Christ 
upon  their  coin.  There  are  men  in  these  days  who 
do  business  by  steam  and  by  lightning,  whose  team 
horses  I  love  to  see  upon  the  streets.  I  listen  for  the 
sound  of  their  sweet  bells,  wdiich  make  music  unto  the 
Lord.  "  The  earth  is  the  Lord's,  and  the  fullness  there- 
of," is  written  in  their  counting  rooms.  "  See,  my 
lord,"  said  a  general  of  the  Society  of  Jesuits,  "  from 
this  room  —  from  this  room  I  govern  not  only  Paris, 
but  China ;  not  only  China,  but  the  whole  world,  with- 
out any  one  knowing  how  it  is  managed."  So,  these 
Christian  men  rule  no  small  part  of  the  world  from 
their  counting  rooms.  Among  their  employees  are 
men  who  org-anize  Christian  colleo;es. 

A  man  is  manufacturing  shoes,  and  he  buys  leather 
and  hires  men  to  do  this  and  to  do  that.  As  one  in- 
cident of  his  beneficent  lifl^,  he  hires  a  man  to  go  West 
and  found  a  college  for  him  ;  he  pays  skilled  teachers 
to  educate  needy  young  men  in  the  border  country. 
He  is  shaping  States  as  well   as  shoes ;  and   his  work 

,  to  he  safely  invested  by  them,  and  called  the Endotanent  Fund. 

The  interest  shall  he  applied  to  the  payment  of  the  salaries  of  teachers  in  Col- 
orado College  as  the  Trustees  shall  deem  expedient. 


104  THE  NEW    WEST. 

will  go  forward  so  long  as  rivers  run  to  the  sea.  Here 
is  a  man  buying  and  selling  goods.  He  hires  clerks 
to  draw  golden  syrup,  or  to  measure  tape,  and  he  also 
hires  men  to  teach  Greek  and  the  Eno-lish  Bible  in 
the  New  West.  Does  a  man  handle  grain,  and  feed 
the  horses  of  half  a  State  ?  Those  horses  pour  money 
into  uncounted  channels  for  doing  good  to  men.  A 
Christian  man  studies  the  divine  Word,  and  renews  his 
consecration  to  God  ;  then  goes  to  his  counting  room, 
and  gives  a  hundred  directions  as  to  bags  of  meal,  or 
the  buying  and  selling  of  cotton  stuff,  or  he  orders  a 
new  lot  of  shoe  pegs  ;  and  he  also  directs  in  the  estab- 
lishment of  some  Christian  college,  whose  fame  will 
perpetuate  his  influence  and  will  never  allow  his  name 
to  die.  A  young  man  in  thrifty  business  will  give 
within  a  lifetime  enough  to  found  a  professorship : 
or,  if  he  is  early  called  into  a  higher  sphere  of  life,  his 
name  will  be  honorable  as  that  of  John  Harvard,  who 
dying  at  thirty,  erected  for  himself  a  monument  which 
will  last  so  long  as  sun  and  moon  endure ;  and  whose 
influence  as  a  benefactor  of  his  race  will  extend 
through  immeasurable  ages. 

Those  were  memorable  words  whi(;h  still  ring  in  my 
ears,  —  "  The  Lord  either  means  to  make  me  poor,  or 
He  will  give  me  more  money.  But  I  propose  to  keep 
on  giving  in  these  hard  times  when  givers  are  few." 
The  man  witnessed  with  joy  his  diminishing  store  of 
earthly  goods,  and  was  glad  to  open  the  eyes  of  the 
poor  and  to  cheer  the  hearts  of  those  who  had  long 
moaned  in  bondage.  "  I  must  give  while  I  can,  if  the 
Lord  is  taking  away  my  property,"  said  one  who 
trebled  his  donation  to  Christian  work,  when  he  learned 
of  a  heavy  loss  in  his  business.  A  very  successfid  and 
clear  minded  man  declares  that  he  will  give  more  than 
he  can,  since  he  wants  to  do  ])iisiness  leaning  hard  on 


THE  NEW    WEST.  105 

God  and  leading  a  life  of  faith  ;  and  he  gives  largely 
when  ordmary  business  foresight  would  hardly  justify 
it,  affirming  that  he  believes  the  Word  of  God,  in  which 
it  is  written  and  sealed  that  the  Lord  will  prosper  those 
who  devote  themselves  to  Him. 

A  noble  record  comes  to  us  from  the  Enii-lish  Univer- 
sities,  in  which  scholarships  are  called  to  this  day  by 
the  names  of  the  working-men  of  London.  Salters, 
Skinners,  Leather  Sellers,  Haberdashers,  Clothmak'ers, 
Merchant  Tailors,  Carpenters,  Cordwainers,  Cutlers, 
Goldsmiths,  Grocers,  and  Fishmongers,  —  all  aided  in 
building  up  those  schools  of  learning  which  are  the 
glory  of  the  world. 

"  Never  count  any  sacrifice  too  groat  for  Christ,"  said 
Mary  Lyon.  Sarah  Hosmer,  of  the  Eliot  Church  in 
Lowell,  supported  a  student  in  the  Nestorian  Seminary 
who  became  a  preacher  of  Christ.  Five  times  she  paid 
fifty  dollars,  earning  the  money  in  a  factory ;  and 
sent  five  native  pastors  upon  their  errands  of  mercy. 
Living  in  an  attic  when  she  was  more  than  sixty  years 
old,  she  took  in  sewing  ;  and  did  not  try  to  lay  up  cash, 
or  live  easily,  as  she  might  have  done.  She  said  that 
she  wanted  to  furnish  another  minister  of  Christ  for 
Nestoria ;  and  she  did  it.  Living  only  for  Christ,  she 
plied  her  needle  for  Him.  The  pride  of  dress  or  pride 
of  purse  in  that  whole  city  will  have  no  more  honora- 
ble record  in  the  last  day  than  her's,  although  she  was 
obscure,  and  was  never  richly  clad.  "  There  is  many 
a  martyr  spirit,"  said  Judson,  "  at  the  kitchen  fire,  over 
the  wash-tub,  and  in  the  plow  field ;  many  obscure 
men  and  w^omen  make  personal  sacrifices,  beside  which 
ours  will  appear  in  the  great  day  very  small  indeed." 

Whenever  Colorado  Colleiire  becomes  an  honor  to  the 
Christian  charity  of  the  country,  —  and  we  believe  that 
the  decrees  of  God  have  given  it  a  noble  future, —  there 


106 


THE  NEW    WEST. 


will  be  found  engraven  upon  its  walls  the  names  of  a 
multitude  of  givers,  the  rich  and  the  poor,  who  have 
added  unspeakable  dignity  to  their  lives  by  founding 
this  Christian  enterprise,  and  therebv  hastenino-  the 
reign  of  Christ.  Is  it  not  w^ortli  the  while  to  toil  pa- 
tiently, to  give  largely,  and  to  sacrifice  for  this  work, 
during  the  first  generation  of  the  life  of  this  College,  to 
prepare  it  for  its  ages  of  service  ?  "  If  a  rare  oppor- 
tunity comes,"  says  a  sacred  book  of  the  far  East,  "  let 
a  man  do  that  which  is  rarely  done." 


#ibjak 


College  Building,  as  seen  froji  the  IIailway. 
Vide  page  72. 


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AA    001  111  589    6 


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University  of  California,  San  Diego 

DATE  DUE 

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JUN  ?  1  "^ 

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